Running Shorts

2010 List

I am fairly certain I've blogged about my 2010 list.  It's a list of things I'm going to buy in 2010 when I'll hopefully be a year into my first legal job.  On the top of the list:  a new car.  With 4 wheel drive (I got my current car when I lived in Virginia).  Also, not a Volkswagon.  (My jetta is always always always always broken-and it only has 40,000 miles in 6 years on it.  When I drove it more, and it was thankfully under warranty, I had it in the shop almost every month or two for four years).  It's broken right now and I'm in the midst of finals and leaving one day later for a road trip.  Fun times.  I actually thought my 2010 list was bigger, but I have to say a car is the main thing on it.  I also need work clothes in a bad way, but I hopefully have to buy those before 2010.

In other transportation news, I got my replacement helmet today.  I think I'm going bike riding tomorrow as part of the car drop-off.  Eeck!

Want to be my friend in August 2009?

BE MY FRIEND!  I feel like telling that to people.  I am legitimately afraid I am not going to have any friends left by the end of law school.  Obviously this whole summer I was completely out of commission.  I just did not feel well nor did my injury lend itself to being around other people-unless they like to monologue their way through conversations.  But now that finals are upon me everyone who hasn't seen me in months (b/c I declined/ignored invitations) is doing round two of where are you want to hang out and I'm saying...sorry, finals, too much work, fixing my teeth, then Canada, then Mt. Washington, so I'll call you the weekend after Labor Day.  I mean, I went a year without seeing an old friend who moved away without me ever having seen her and one friend moved here over two months ago who I have not gotten myself together to see for the aforementioned reasons.  This is not how one maintains friendships.  I think it's all coming to a head today b/c I had to tell a whole bunch of people that I couldn't see them for weeks and weeks.  That sounds ridiculous and made-up-even the resident somehow had time in his schedule.

I oscillate between thinking "I'm supposed to work hard" and "but I'm going to die alone with my laptop."

12 more minutes in the bank :)

I ran.  It went fine.  My bottom front teeth hurt when I run.  I wonder if that is permanent.  The various construction companies have made a lot of progress around the area where I live so I checked out some new buildings and parks.  It was a total shock b/c I didn't even know all of the new stuff existed (I know that sounds ridiculous).  I ran for 12 minutes (with a one minute break in the middle).  It takes me a while to ramp up my minutes/mileage after a lay-off, but I know if I don't do it slowly I will get a sharp pain in the middle of one of my feet  (I can't remember which one) and then have to rest and then start all over...

TBF

I am officially leaving the Running Blog Family to join the Teeth Blog Family!  Not really.  But I should! Today's report about my mouth is all good news!!!  I can eat!  I think I finished breaking my teeth with my first few meals and now I can eat without alarm.  So far I've safely had toast, eggs, sushi, soup, and animal crackers (I let them mush up first before I bit them...). It's not a party for my teeth or anything, but I can get by. It's worth it not to have to carry thermoses around with me all day!!

READ FASTER

A 6:30 AM wakeup call totally allows one to run, swim, read tax, and still have time to take a nap from 8:30-9:15 AM.  I was telling myself to READ FASTER so that I could go back to sleep.  It totally worked.  And if you calculate in the time I had to read on the train, I was so money.

August 15

August 15 is going to be the worst day ever: three finals, two root canals, and a 25 page paper.  Worst day ever.  And I won't be able to eat for at least another month from today.  The teeth that hurt the most can't get worked on until I can open my mouth.  And I just canceled what I think was a date for tomorrow night b/c I have too much on my plate in the next month: finals, two trips, dental work (today's adventures to the oral surgeon and endodontist took 8 hours), a wedding, and starting two jobs.  I am seeing, yet again, why grad students marry later...Actually, I don't really believe that.  If I wanted to go on this date I would make time.  Also, I'm exhausted which is a really good thing-it will allow me to go to bed early and get on real person time instead of law school time (which involves taking a nap and then staying up all night).

Things not as they appear

It's 8 PM and I haven't broken any teeth yet today.  Whew!  My Dad offered to carry baby food up Mt. Washington for me.  That's love I tell ya.

I ran today.  9 minutes!!  Woohoo.  I'm off to the doctor tomorrow.  I'm finding that no one really believes I'm in pain b/c my skin and top front teeth are okay (and I have a tendency to joke around about my situation)...but I am going to make it known that my teeth are NOT okay!!!  My parents are the only ones that believe that I'm uncomfortable and I think that's b/c 1) my Dad knows what it's like to need dental work and 2) they can't see me.  I have the same problem on the subway-I have to tell people if they could stop banging their bag into my broken jaw that would be helpful.

You can't handle the soup!!!

Midnight, Friday night
Me to the resident on call:  Sooo...how urgent is it that I broke my molar in half and the broken/wobbly half is still hanging on there?

I had a run in with some soup.  It was apparently too much for my tooth to handle.  That makes (approx.) 6 broken teeth.  [7 if you include the one that came out.]  It's hard for me to tell exactly.  OMG, I am grossing myself out.

The resident said I could just keep my regular Monday appointment since I wasn't in a lot of pain.  My other alternative was to go chill at the ER.  I chose the former since I was in no pain (from this tooth).  He also told me to maintain a soft diet.  I reiterated that it was soup that did me in... :)

I swam for 15 minutes today.  It was quite the process getting ready to go.  What exactly did I need...and where was it all?  I thought about it and I've been running on and off for 14 years.  Swimming....on and off for 3 years.  It's not quite second nature yet.  Once I got there it went fine.  It was really warm (in a good way) b/c the pool area is built kind of like a greenhouse.  I did some casual 100s.  For some reason, with both the swimming and the running, I don't feel as out of shape as I usually do when coming off an injury.  It usually feels awful but I feel okay this time around.

OMG, my teeth are still grossing me out.

Don't read this if you don't want boring details about my teeth

This morning I channeled what my doctor would have said if I had gotten in to see him:  Try eating.  One meal a day.  Ease into it.  You should be able to run by now.  Let pain be your guide.  [All the stuff doctors tell athletes that drives us crazy b/c then you have to analyze..Was that pain?  What exactly should I be doing??]

I'm glad I did it-otherwise the desire to eat would have possessed me all weekend.  I had sushi.  It was hilarious/awful.  I can't really open my mouth enough to put sushi in so that hurt.  It doesn't hurt my jaw to chew, but it does hurt my teeth every time food touches them.  And, since I have broken teeth on both sides of my mouth and I'm not supposed to bite down on the tooth that got knocked out in the front, that doesn't exactly leave a lot of (re: any) chewing surface.  I ended up trying to rip the sushi apart so it was small enough to get in my mouth and then basically swallowed the pieces whole so I could minimize the amount of time they touched my broken teeth.  Plus, it wasn't even that good.  For the past few weeks I've been on a peanut butter/chocolate pudding diet which totally trumps sushi.  [On that note I look like a woman again.  B/c I was so bony at the hospital my-admittedly drugged-20 y/o roommate thought she was sharing a room with a kid.]  But I have some curves back.  It's kind of nice.  In that way I'm healthier now than before my accident.  (SEEEEeee, that's why peanut butter is good for you.)

I ran.  That felt okay.  It's hard to differentiate what is jaw pain vs. teeth pain.  Things are usually a little sore when I wake up in the morning b/c my pain meds (just Tylenol these days) are low and b/c I clench my teeth when I sleep (not so fun when your teeth are broken).  Plus teeth pain often radiates up into your ear so I really have no idea what the specific cause of any pain is.  In my mind jaw pain is worrisome and teeth pain is expected and I can't really make that worse.  But really, the thing that felt most weird when I was running was my tooth that got knocked out.  I guess I should get that taken care of soon.  The dentist said he can fix that even if I can't open my mouth b/c he's going to work on it from the front and bond it to the teeth next to it.

I'm glad it's the weekend :)  I need some pudding.

Self-treatment

Stupid trauma patients...oh wait...I am/was a stupid trauma patient.  Due to calamities in the metro-Boston area there is apparently a lot of facial trauma and all of the doctors except one will be in the OR tomorrow.  This means they can't see me. :(  My appointment got moved to next week.

But I'm going to eat (and run) anyway.  I'm 7 weeks post-op.  It's time for some sushi.

I totally understand the concept of triage and I'm super grateful that the doctors could do my surgery the day after I got hurt so it's no big.  But I really am going to eat tomorrow.  I'll see how it goes.

45 minutes on the trainer while watching Say Anything.

Update: okay, i might not run. i'm kind of afraid. but i am definitely eating.