In an effort to conserve sick days at school for surgery, I scheduled my appointment in Nashville with a 24 hour turn around. It was a quick trip, but from the moment I stepped off the plane, I knew I loved Nashville. While we didn't have much time to explore the city, it was a great chance to get acquainted with my medical team.
Dr. Byrd's office is on the campus of Vanderbilt University. He has a state of the art facility with an adjoining physical therapy center. Everyone in his office was so welcoming from the moment we walked in. Everyone was so genuine, from the receptionist to the x-ray tech (who was from that state up north and wasn't a huge fan of my OSU gear!). I met with Beth first and then headed to physical therapy for an evaluation with Erica.
I was embarrassed by my lack of strength. I had gone from a healthy runner at a healthy body weight, to someone who couldn't do a set of ten leg lifts without taking a break because of the pain. At this point I had gained about 25 pounds since July. I was unable to workout at the level that I previously did, and when I did workout at all I paid for it for the next three days. My stress eating had not been helping my cause over the past 5 months either.
After my evaluation I headed back to get my shot of cortisone. I opted not to look at the needle, which was a good choice based on the look on Gabe's face. That sucker was about the length of a number 2 pencil and a half. They numbed me up, laid me on the table with the following instructions. "Don't move and don't scream." Easier said than done. Once it was over I was told to walk around for about 10 minutes and they would come back to check on me.
I couldn't put my finger on it but something was not right. It just didn't feel normal. When Beth came back in and asked how I was doing I was honest and said "It just feels weird, something isn't right." She went on with a list of questions, and finally asked what I was feeling, to which I answered "Nothing, I can't feel anything, it's weird." She immediately started laughing. The humor I was struggling to find, but she told me that I wasn't feeling anything because there was no pain there. This is what it felt like not to have any hip pain. When normal people walk they don't "feel" anything in their hips, I had been walking around for so long feeling something with each step, my body didn't remember what it felt like to feel normal. She quickly told me that it would wear off in about 2 hours because it was just the numbing medicine for the shot. Let me tell you, it was the best two hours of my life in the past six months! She assured me that this was the feeling I would have after surgery, no pain and back to normal. I can't wait to get back to that feeling. The countdown was on.
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