Writer. Reader. Runner. Editor.
That defines me, along with being a mom, sister, daughter, friend.
I love all things words, all things language.
For nearly two decades, I’ve helped writers find the story, find the characters, find the arc and the narrative. I run a community book club. I sit on the board of the Sioux Falls Area Running Club and the Sioux Falls Marathon.
Jack & Viv 
can you tell me what your symptoms were for your dreaded pelvic stress frx?
It just started as some weird pain in my leg/aching. It came on very slowly, only sometimes, which made it easy to ignore. After a while, it just was a bit more often. Then one day I got up from my desk and was limping. And that’s when I found out I had two stress-fractures, one on each side. It was by far the worst injury I’ve ever had. Are you struggling with it?
yes, sadly. I’ve been a runner all my life. Ran through pregnancies etc and just recently did Philly marathon and since then have had intermittent groin pain. Yesterday, after my run, my pubic bone started to ache and now is constant throbbing. I have appt tm. I am ok with no running and understand things could be worse, though running is the thing that gets me through ” the worse..” I do think it will be extremely difficult to not do *anything* though as exercise is such a huge part of my life.. Were you able to cross train at all? Thanks for getting back to me so quickly!
Lissa
Lissa, I couldn’t do anything. Even a trip to Target hurt. It can take up to a year to heal. It was really awful. It hurt to carry my then-toddler son around. It hurt to grocery shop. It hurt all the time. It would ache in the middle of the night. What is the worst is I did take months off – and did nothing. Elliptical can aggravate it, and sitting on a spinning bike hurt, as you can imagine.
Then I began running very slowly again (I also ended up pregnant again – lots of downtime will do that!). I ran through that pregnancy, and then tried to ramp back up again very slowly afterward. I still had phantom pain. The initial injury was September 2009 – a year after my son was born, and probably 100 percent related to overtraining, if I’m honest with myself. I knocked out a 70-mile week right before I went down.
I took off the rest of the year, and ran just a bit. I got pregnant again, and my daughter was born in October 2010. I took about a month off after that,and started up.
I bagged a spring marathon, and ran a half instead (in 1:45, so not bad at all). Then I ran conservatively but still finished a fall marathon in 2011 (3:58, not a PR, but a time I was happy with). But what’s odd is I STILL had pain – I took nine days off after my 20-mile training run for pain. I am that conservative about it.
I had an MRI in January (a second one) and it was clean. In July or August I had a 3D bone scan, and it also was clean. They couldn’t figure out why I still had pain. And I was told to run through it. But, as you know, runners are dumb, and I was terrified that it would crack again. I mean, I ran through the pain once, you know?
Anyway. I ended up quitting breastfeeding, and ALL the pubic pain went away. It was crazy. I really think that the loose ligaments were pulling on the old injuries. I don’t regret a year (after my daughter’s birth) taking it easy, because I’m sure that helped. But I am shocked by how the hormones may or may not have played a part in the phantom pain.
I now am getting ready for another marathon in January, and am in great shape. So I feel like the time off was worth it, to heal, and base-build in the right way.
Best of luck to you. It was hands down the shittiest injury I’ve ever had, the most frustrating, and I was floored when I found out I had two stress fractures. And even more pissed when sports doctors had zero answers. I switched doctors three times, until I found one who was kind and understanding.
Hang in there. Keep me posted. It’s a crap injury with not much info out there, so I’m always interested to hear about others’ experience.
J.
Fyi, had the mri which diagnosed not a stress fracture but a labral tear…. Seems like a pain injury as well, unfortunately! Even though I “BQ’d” in Philly- ( 3:24) I think running is just too important to me to get injured in training for longer distances, so will hopefully be able to stick to just a nice, happy, weekly therapy run… Thanks for your insight and good luck with your running!
Oh, man. So sorry! Good luck to you!!! And kick ass Philly time!
Thanks! Do you know anything about the labral tears? The Dr said not to worry too much about it but everything I’ve read seems not very positive. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see !!
I don’t, sorry!! Is it something you get physical therapy for?
Thank you for following my blog BOOK MAVEN’S PICKS. I followed you back because you have a very interesting blog and you also blog about books. However, I will be looking forward to reading your other posts, whether they are about books or not.
P.S. Your title image is just adorable. You daughter?
Best,
Jhobell Kristyl of bookmavenpicks.wordpress.com