Patience?

No, I still don't have any.  "The cortisone will take 2-7 days to kick in," said Dr. L.  Well, it had been exactly 3 days and 8 hours since the injections when I headed out to run this evening (I waited as long as I could).  I've worked with a lot of doctors.  They're always way conservative when they give you ranges like that.  And who says 2-7?  That's a huuuuuuuge range.  Why not say an average of 2.5 days?  I'm a little tense, if you couldn't already tell.

The extreme soreness from the injections had worn off by this morning, and I was disappointed that my abdomen/side/back felt "normal."  Normal to me for the last six months means achy, uncomfortable, and painful if touched in specific spots.  I wanted it to be GONE.  One thing I did notice, though, is that the spots he injected actually do feel better.  When I press on them, it doesn't really hurt.  However, everything to the right of those spots on the right side still does.  He injected my rectus abdominis, but it seems that he should have also injected the muscles next to it.  I had him inject that muscle because that's where the sharpest pain was, and that's where I thought it all originated.  I was thinking that if I got the rectus abdominis under control, the rest would disappear.  Wrong.

I called Dr. L's office this morning even though I knew it wouldn't do any good.  I told the nurse that I felt like I had some areas that had been missed.  No matter, I had my limit of cortisone and can have no more for two weeks.  That's not really true, of course, unless you're having a joint injected.  The premise for limiting the injections is that too much cortisone can damage/weaken a joint (and especially a tendon).  However, they're injecting my muscles.  There is thus no actual (as in evidence-based) reason as to why I can't have anymore right now.  Which is why, in my typical bull dog fashion, I'll be calling them again tomorrow.

Hold the phone, though--I forgot to report on my run and I'm giving it away.  As you have probably guessed, based on the above paragraphs and, well, just how things "go" for me, it was painful.  To be honest, I couldn't really tell that I had had the injections at all.  Now, I will say that the worst pain was actually in my back and up in my ribs.  That's different.  But the point is...for 13 miles, it hurt.  Badly.  The left side started to join in, too, at the end...but a bit lower than where he injected me.

So I'm not sure what to make of all this, but of course I'm going all catastrophic.  Cortisone won't work for my problem.  I'm never going to get better!  But the truth is, it's probably going to continue to be a process.  I wanted the injections to work like magic.  I actually think they can, but my problem is so diffuse.  It is very difficult to me to "point to" where it hurts.  It wraps around my entire right side.  It spreads to the left.  I feel it between some ribs, but not always.  It's frustrating to be so vividly and intimately aware of this pain, but not be able to articulate exactly where it is.  I don't think I wasted the four injections I got, but I think I should have had him spread them around more.  Kicking myself for that one.  I guess it is possible, too, that things might get better over the next four days.  But I'd rather wallow in worry than be optimistic.  Pathological.

On another note, I met with Dr. Houze yesterday.  If you don't remember who he is, he's a chiropractor in Bloomington.  Dr. Kaeser sent me on a search for a good one, and Dr. Houze is who I found.  I had a 15 minute free consultation with him yesterday.  He was pretty much exactly as I expected.  Long and lean (I knew he was a cyclist), and very inviting.  We began discussing my case.  Until I saw Dr. Kaeser, I had been consistently told "It's very interesting, but I don't know what it is."  Dr. Kaeser figured it out, Dr. L agreed with him, and I wondered where Dr. Houze would weigh in.  He spoke in the exact same terms as Dr. Kaeser.  That put me immediately at ease.  He acknowledged that my pregnancy caused this (I emphatically disagree with anyone who says it didn't).  He also explained to me how, and believes the main culprit is the diaphragm given that it is so displaced during pregnancy and basically attaches to everything in the abdomen.  He recognized that my pain must be severe at times given its location.  I liked him.

He wants to help me (as so many people do--I really just want some relief).  Of course, he's going to be gone until March 23 because he's taking his Little 500 team down to Florida to ride for the week.  Figures.  I did manage to get in with his associate, though, Dr. Russell, on Saturday morning.  Dr. Kaeser is going to communicate with him before he sees me on Saturday.  I'm so glad I have him pulling for me.

7 weeks until Eugene.  I wonder if it's possible to be pain free by then.  I have to continue to believe that it is...otherwise I can't get myself out there.