My wife (Beverly) took me to the closest urgent care facility. I signed in and actually didn't have to wait more than 15 minutes before they called me back. When the nurse practitioner looked at it, she said it was a hematoma which would have been caused by some trauma to the elbow. A
hematoma is an abnormal collection of blood outside of a blood vessel. It occurs because the wall of a blood vessel wall, artery, vein, or capillary, has been damaged and blood has leaked into surrounding tissues. The hematoma may be tiny, with just a dot of blood, or it can be large and cause significant swelling. Mine had some significant swelling.
They decided to try and drain a little of the blood from the area to see if it would help. I received some deadening medicine to help relieve any pain before they tried to drain it. Once it was numb, the nurse practitioner took a pretty large needle and stuck it into my elbow. Even thought it had been numbed, it was extremely painful. She was able to get some of the blood out of the area and it did seem to relieve the pain. But it was still pretty large.
She wanted to go into it one more time. This time after she had drained some more of the fluids from the area, I started to feel sick to my stomach. I have never been afraid of needles but this was too much. Apparently I was pale and started to feel dizzy. They made me lie down and put a cold compress on my neck. I started to feel much better. The good thing was that my elbow was significantly smaller and the pain was slightly less. I had to stay there for about 1/2 an hour because I wasn't too steady on my feet.
They finally brought Bev back to sit with me. I had initially turned down a pain reduction injection. But Bev told me that I should do it so that I could sleep better. As usual, she was right. I told the nurse who was helping out that I wanted the injection. He said he would do it for me. I asked if he was going to do it in the same room I was in. He laughed at the question. I told Bev, I guess he didn't want me to drop my pants in the hallway or the waiting room to get my shot.
Once I had the injection, I was released to go home. They told me to wait until the morning to decide whether or not a run was advised. I was able to get a good night's rest. When I woke up the next morning, I was feeling better. Still some elbow pain but not too bad. I decided that I wanted to get in my training run. My goal was to go out slow and see how I felt. If it was causing too much pain in my elbow, I would break off the run and simply walk home. To my pleasant surprise there was limited pain and I was able to complete my 10 miler and at a much faster pace than expected.
Today I got up to run the second of my weekend long runs. I was scheduled for another 10 miler. I headed out with the same plan in mind. I found a comfortable pace and was able to complete the run even faster that yesterday. I did notice a little swelling around my forearm and elbow. I got into the house and iced it down which reduced the swelling.
I am hopeful that it will heal quickly and I will be 100% soon. My training has been going really well and I am feeling good about where I am as far as speed and endurance. I would like to break 4 hours once more before I retire from marathoning. The key is always getting to the starting line healthy and fully trained. This little set back is upsetting and frustrating. All I can do now is work hard at getting healed and not let it negatively affect me in any way.
"To keep from decaying, to be a winner, the athlete must accept pain--not only accept it, but look for it, live with it, learn not to fear it." - Dr. George Sheehan, running author
Sept. 19 – 10.50 miles (1:35:31, 9:06 pace) - Mile Repeats (8:27 pace)
Sept. 20 – 6.20 miles (58:45, 9:292 pace) - Atlanta, GA
Sept. 22 – 7.20 miles (1:10:35, 9:48 pace) - Greenville, SC
Sept. 23– 10.20 miles (1:27:32, 8:35 pace) - Tempo Run
Sept. 24 – 10.10 miles (1:31:41, 9:05 pace)
Sept. 25 – 10.20 miles (1:32:02, 9:01 pace)
Total Miles: 54.4 miles
2016 Total Miles: 1,534.8 miles
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