The Happiest Post Since December

I'm doing a happy dance -- with one crutch! I've spent 4 weeks on crutches, and today I saw my doctor again. I can gradually start putting weight down on my leg using one crutch, and after a week, if I'm not having any pain, then I can toss the crutches! Woo hoo!

I'm still at least another 8 weeks away from being able to run, but if I can walk around my house and office normally, I almost don't care! This post has so many exclamation points!!

For the next week, I'm going to gradually ease back into using my right leg. I've been so paranoid about making things worse and having to stay on crutches forever that I haven't done ANYTHING in over a month. Seriously, not one thing. I'm becoming squishy and I'm thrilled at the prospect of being able to exercise again. My right leg is very, very weak though, so keeping a crutch for a bit is a must, regardless of how my hip feels.

When the crutches are totally gone, I can start swimming again (hurray!!). I'm a terrible swimmer and I don't really even know how to do anything but the breaststroke -- which I'm not allowed to do -- but thank goodness I'm sexy in goggles. It's better than nothing, so I'll figure it out.

If swimming goes well, then I can start using an exercise bike with low resistance. In 8 weeks, I go back to the doc for new scans and we'll see what we see. If there's bone growth, then he said we can add some "light jogging" (whatever that means, probably all I've ever done anyway) on a treadmill. But we had a serious talk about my osteopenia complication, and in the long-term, long distances aren't going to be my friend. At least not until my bone density gets back into a healthy range. My doctor didn't say I could never run a marathon again, but it won't be in the near future. 

And when I do train for another long race, he recommended not doing more than one a year, and not doing a full marathon every year. After 6 months of training and exhaustion leading up to the Memphis Marathon, I have absolutely no problem with this. If I can do 5 and 10K's, maybe a half marathon here and there, I'll be thrilled. 

My only goal at this point is to be healthy, active and fit. And now -- with my one crutch -- I'm making progress and heading in the right direction!