Tuesday, January 20, 2009

It's been a while...

It's obviously been a long time since I updated this blog. I just wanted to drop this note here, and let anyone who might be looking at this know that it's not because of the Five Fingers. I absolutely loved them... as it turns out, however, the 'shin-splint' pain I was talking about in the last post I made here turned out not to be a shin splint - but instead a benign bone tumor. Benign is obviously a good thing, but the fact is it's kept me from doing much running at all since the end of last summer. The thing seems to have solidified somehow, and is now encased in new bone, and I'm being told I can slowly start running again... then in 3 months if it remains painful, or grows, the next step is getting it taken out...

Anyway - that's the deal. Maybe this coming summer I'll get a chance to get back in the FiveFingers.

Til then, have a good run,
M@

5 comments:

ivers said...

I discovered your blog tonight while googling around for info on the vibram five fingers... I realize it's been a few months since your last post, but I wanted to thank you for the details you gave about your initial experiences with the vff. So sorry to hear about the tumor, thank goodness it's benign! I hope your recovery goes well.

Jonathan Vander Ark said...

M@,

Sorry to hear of your pain, I was hoping the dog had laser beam eyes or something. I'll be praying for you from over here in WA, while you heal up.

Can't wait to stop reading about these things, get off my couch-potato butt and buy them.

Take care of yourself,

Jon

Gates VP said...

Hey Matt, I just read your previous post and was really worried.

I just got my first pair of VFFs last two weeks ago and after some 5km to 10km runs, all of the discomfort is in the calves and insole. The shin splints definitely sounded "wrong".

I always hope it's nothing big, but I'm sorry that it is.

I hope and pray that your legs recover and that you'll "find your legs" again.

Unknown said...

Hey Matt,

I just came across your blog and I'm glad to hear you're back running. How did you find out you had a benign tumor? What did it feel like to you? I've had chronic shin splints for literally nine years. I can't really stand for very long, much less run, but I have yet to fully find out what's wrong with my legs. I've seen Western and Eastern doctors with no avail.

Any thoughts? Sorry to post this here as I didn't see a place to email you directly.

jon

M@ said...

Hey Greener,

My actual diagnosis went like this...

I ran the 6 hour transcendence race (for the 3rd time) in Kingston, but developed some foot pain in the last couple of hours. Being stubborn, i still managed to push out of 55km, but I was left with a foot that hurt a lot afterwards.

I returned to running days later only to find that I had to change my gait to run on my injured foot. This lead to pain in that shin, which in turn led to a bone density scan. That showed something really wrong, and was followed by a an xray and after that several CAT scans, several visits to several specialists, and in the end... well, it was determined it wasn't even a tumor.

In 2006 I was running the Jay Challenge in VT. It's a very tough ultra course, and I wiped out hard in a river-running section. At the time I knew I'd hurt my leg, but had no idea how badly. As it turns out I broke it (yet continued to run 32km after that point) and the break swelled, became a hematoma in the bone - which then formed over with new bone, and that was what they thought was the tumor. I still had to to take over a year off from doing anything while the injury healed fully... but now I'm back at it.

Best of luck with your problems. If you've had shin splints that long, you should really press to find out the cause!