The Case of the Mystery Pain: Part I

On October 24th I went out for a 7 mile speed workout.  It was my third run after having taken a week off with acute bronchitis.  The first two runs had been easy and uneventful.  During the run, at around mile 5 I felt a sudden and surprising pain in my left leg.  The weird thing was, I couldn't tell you where the pain was centered.  It was sort of global. 

Naturally, I ran through the pain, very pleased with myself for completing my workout in my goal time.  Then I walked home and laid down on the floor in agony.  For the next few days the pain did not improve.  It was worse when I took a step on the left side, but it never went away. 

I saw the doctor on the first day I could get an appointment, which was Oct.27th.  The first question I asked was, did I need an x-ray to rule out a stress fracture.  But because I couldn't precisely locate the epicenter of the problem, the doctor diagnosed me with 'fascial pain', gave me a prescription for some strong anti-inflammatories, and told me to walk when it felt fine to walk, and run when it felt fine to run.  She said I would not do any damage by running on the sore leg.

Two days later we jetted to New York City where we walked about 3-5 miles a day and where I managed a 6 mile run.  It was painful, but not unbearable until the last mile or so..  Every evening after walking all day my leg killed me.  But every morning it felt fine, so I figured it wasn't getting worse.

I went back to the doctor on Nov. 6th and reported the pain had not gone away as expected.  I also let her know that my hip seemed to be the worst area now.  At that she sent me to a chiropractor, suspecting my hip might be out of alignment causing issues all the way down the leg.

To be continued....