"It's Not a Toomah"

It's not a tumor.  It's not a hernia either.  I never thought I had a tumor, but I did think I had a hernia.  I thought that for about 5 days and I started getting nervous.  Let me take you back a week or so...

Remember that workout I did with the teens a couple weeks ago?  Yeah. Click here to review that day.  Anyway, it killed me.  Only it was mostly killing my legs, nothing else.  The next 4 days I couldn't walk normal and was in excruciating pain.  All the while, I had this increasing pain growing in my stomach but didn't think much of it.  I noticed it first 2 nights later as I was stretching and felt sharp pains right above and to the left of my bellybutton.  So I stopped that stretch and hobbled along my merry way.  The next day I went snowboarding-- bad mistake.  Since my LEGS were so sore and worthless, I used all my stomach muscle strength to get up from the ground each time and really over-exerted myself without realizing it.  The next few days followed with decreasing leg pain until exactly 5 days after the workout-- I felt almost okay.  

Then Thursday came, exactly a week after the workout.  I sat up in my bed and there was a stabbing pain in that same spot in my stomach.  I knew it wasn't "sore abs" because I didn't have that pain anywhere else-- just in that one direct spot.  It killed.  I got up for a minute, laid back in bed, and the pain was there every time I tried to roll over, move, shift, etc.  Thursday at work was okay and I felt the pain off and on. I did some research on the computer with one of my teens at work, and someone mentioned it could be a hernia.  I didn't even really know what that was.  So I read about it and felt like I had the correct symptoms and the possible causes seemed to fit the description. (the projection of an organ or part through the lining of the cavity in which it is normally situated, esp the protrusion of intestine through the front wall of the abdominal cavity. It is caused by muscular strain, injury, etc.)  My teen just brushed it off and told me to stop being a wuss, and actually punched me in the stomach to toughen me up.  Ouch. Then I was an idiot and decided to play church basketball that night.  Why would that ever be okay?

I played basketball anyway and that was another mistake.  I didn't last the whole game and probably played one of the worst games of my life.  Every time I passed the ball, shot the ball, dribbled the ball... the pain was stabbing and throbbing and aching.  But I kept playing until finally towards the end I sat out and couldn't bear to go back in.  When I left afterwards I was close to tears and was actually quite nervous and confused at such intense pain all at once.  I took some Ibuprofen and had to roll myself into bed and try to be extra careful.  The pain was throbbing all day Friday and I felt terrible.  I tried to call a few doctors but no one could see me right away.  I went to Urgent Care and as soon as I found out my co-pay was $100 I left.  :)  Luckily my friend's mom is a nurse so I called her and she asked questions and thought it could be a hernia also.  I decided I needed to lay low for the weekend and not do anything stupid.  I also called another doctor and made an appointment for Monday.

I was most upset over the fact that I'd planned on going snowboarding on Saturday to use the brand new snowboard I bought the week before.  It had snowed on Friday and the conditions were perfect.  But the stabbing pain wasn't worth fighting and I'd just have to keep my snowboard shiny and clean until another day.

The weekend slowly passed and I thought I had a hernia, and that was scary and weird.  But Sunday I actually felt a little better and I could tell it made a difference to just relax and not be very active.  I was excited for Monday to come so I could figure out what the heck was wrong with me.  And after visiting the doctor and doing a few painful sit-ups so he could press in on my stomach in various places (ouch)... he concluded that it wasn't a hernia (It's not a toomah) but a strained stomach muscle.  Really?!  PHEW!  He prescribed me some muscle relaxers (which I only take a night because they cause major drowsiness), told me to ice the area (which I've only done a few times), and said no physical activity for 7-10 days.  Sheesh... after all this motivating effort I've made to get back into my running groove, I just had to quit for a week.  Kind of a nice break but definitely sets me back a little.  Oh well.

It's been a good week and I feel close to 100%.  Sometimes I still feel the jabbing pain when I'm in the process of laying down or sitting up in bed, but other than that I'm good to go.  I'm actually looking forward to next week when I'm all better and can run free and sweat as much as I want to.  Until then... I'll enjoy a few more days of taking it easy and feeling grateful that "It's Not a Toomah."