For those of you following my painful marathon training journey – and then my stress fractures two days before the race – here’s an update. Last week Monday, I had an MRI to see what the XRays couldn’t see – while the XRays caught the mini fractures in my metatarsals and tibia, they couldn’t see how far along I was on the healing process. Of course, the MRI was anything but fun – if you’ve never had one before, here’s what happens:

• Get to the dr. at your appointed time.
• Go to a locker to change out of your clothes, including any metal jewelry, and get into a hospital gown.
• Wait in a small, cold waiting area for your MRI, in your hospital gown, while the dr. tries to figure out why your insurance hasn’t yet approved your MRI. Keep your fingers crossed you don’t have to come back another day after coming this far. Read an old Family Circle magazine because you have nothing else with you at this time – it’s all in your locked up (Just kidding – this may not happen to you … but it did happen to me.)
•  After 30 min of extra waiting in the gown, finally get your MRI.
• Lay in a tube, in an extremely loud room that sounds like there are constant machine guns blasting around you, along with loud beeps. Lay there for 30-45 minutes (length of time depends on what you’re getting scanned) listening to some music that they have on hand. I asked for Rock music and was given Drops of Jupiter and similar music to listen to while the machine guns blasted in the background.

Definitely an interesting experience

I went back to my original orthopedic sports medicine doctor on Thursday to get my MRI read. She said that thankfully there was no fluid in my shin, meaning the fracture was almost healed, and that hopefully I’d be in the boot for only two more weeks before coming back for another XRay. After that, it’d be at least 3 weeks of some soft exercises (like biking and elliptical) before thinking about running again. She also got my Vitamin D level tested – I take Calcium + Vitamin D gummy vitamins almost daily, but I may be able to up my levels to heal faster. So 6 weeks before my next run – it’s painful to think about, but I’m grateful that it’s not 6 months.

On a brighter note – I’m off to the beach for a week! Hopefully will get to take my aircast off to enjoy the sand on my toes a few times. Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!