Murphy’s Law

I remember my Nana evoking Murphy’s Law a lot. When I was little she had a friend named Murphy (a woman– I don’t know the origin of that name) so I, of course, thought that whenever Nana talked about “Murphy’s Law” it was her wise friend, Murphy, that she was evoking.

Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

It seems negative, but I don’t see it that way. Murphy’s Law is more about being flexible, and understanding that things change suddenly an unexpentantly. It could be the motto of most of my time in graduate school, actually.

So it shouldn’t be surprising that just when I start feeling some level of progress as a runner, I manage to sprain my ankle and fracture my tibia.

See, last month I fell off of the treadmill at the Y. I have no idea how it happened. I had finished my run, and was cooling down by walking at a reasonable pace. Somehow I tripped over myself (I’m clumsy) and I went flying off the back of the treadmill before I could hit the stop button or grab that emergency cord. I ended up extremely embarrassed, with skinned knees and VERY bruised ankles and shins. I hobbled home and waiting until I could walk without pain to run again– about 10 days I think. I know I’m new to any regular exercise that isn’t yoga, but I was pretty sure it was okay to just wait till the bruising calmed down, and until I didn’t have pain, to run again.

Well, on and off for the next few weeks my ankle and shins hurt a bit after runs. Nothing alarming. I would take a few extra days off, and then hop back on the treadmill, waming up first, and stretching carefully after each run. Then I went running like usual last weekend and for whatever reason, I couldn’t make it through 10 minutes of my run. I felt like my right ankle was going to split in two. Of course that was the very same day I ordered myself the Nike+ running kit, and an armband holder for my iPod Touch so that I could start running outside in the spring!

After limping around all weekend, I decided it could be sprained so I tried to get a doctor’s appointment. Not able to get into my real doctor unti the end of the week, I ended up seeing a doctor at the student health clinic. The doctor definitely agreed I had sprained my ankle, but was, to my surprise, much more concerned about the painful lump on my shin that had been there since the Treadmill Incident. After getting x-rays, it turned out that I actually had a stress fracture on my tibia, and that I’d been running on it all along with no idea.

The advice I got at the student health clinic was conflictual and confusing. First they gave me ankle exercises to start doing right away, and then they told me to give my leg complete rest for two weeks. They also wanted me to stop carrying my bag around campus, and to stop walking up/down hills and stairs. And they didn’t want to give me crutches or a brace unless it didn’t feel better by Friday. Since half of our campus is hills and stairs, and since I write and work on campus, getting around this week sucked. And it’s Friday and it isn’t any better. Every once in a while I’ll try to walk normally on it just to see if it is miraculously all better. It isn’t.

And I have no idea what to do other than sit here with my foot up, take advil, and ice it. I’m seeing my real doctor on Monday, and hopefully I’ll get less confusing advice. I want to be able to go to campus like usual so I can get work done. And I want to make sure this heals properly so that I can run outside in the spring!