Oh no! Look at what I did….. I went and got injured………………( Part II)

With sometime on my hands, I started thinking about all my options and then decided to be a little more proactive to understand what exactly was going on. The cause for the pain and the reason for the extraordinary time it was taking for me to heal. My next step was to go in for a second opinion. So far, I had been fairly relaxed in my approach towards this injury. The doctor I had been going to was a regular orthopedic. So now it was time for me to do some research and get in touch with a sports medicine specialist. After a lot of searching around, fretting and frowning, I finally found one that I connected with almost instantly.

A highly private and low profile person, I got her number from a friend of my mother. When we spoke over the phone, I realised that she was a fiesty woman with a lot of pride in what she does. When I walked into her office the next day, I knew she would be the doctor on my speed dial. Our paths had crossed many a times. A passionate horse-rider herself, she had seen me back in my equestrian days and admired me for my passion. Leading different lives, we had similar interests. She herself is a fitness enthusiast, a long distance runner and an endurance cyclist. When we spoke, she explained a lot of the internal body functions and bio-mechanics of the body when it comes to high impact sports such as running. We then decided the best course of action would be to check my internal body mechanism as well as a bone scan to really understand the depth of my injury.

After an initial check-up, the next few days saw me undergoing a bone scan and several blood tests. A week later, the results were horrifying. In addition to my original diagnosis of a severe stress fracture on my right tibia, I had multiple stress fractures in both my legs and a weak lower back. Add to that, there were severe Vitamin deficiencies. Vitamin D and B-12 levels were alarmingly low. My calf and IT Band muscles were so tight that they were latching onto my bones and not letting the bone heal. So, we decided the next course of action would be to go in for myofascial release of my muscles before heading into rehab to build my strength.

The next step took me to Ryan Fernando of Qua Nutrition to understand the lapses in my nutrition. I am a home-food gal and my mum cooks very healthy food. But we had to retrace back to when I went overseas. From an extremely nutritional diet very high in vegetables and fruit, I had transitioned to a high meat diet simply because it was a lot more convenient. At that time, I had suffered from constipation due to the lack of fiber in my diet. I had been prescribed with a laxative back then to assist with instant relief. Over time though, the laxative became my first go-to to have a light and empty tummy. I had continued this on a daily basis for about a decade.Due to this, the intestines did not have enough time with the food to be able to imbibe the nutrition from it. The food would go in and be thrown right out. My digestive system had forgotten how to work. So, the next step here was to go back to the basics, bye-bye laxatives and remind the intestines to jump start into action.

Verdict: Over the next three months, I will be undergoing physio and rebuilding of strength. Thereafter, we will look at getting me back on the running track – slowly! As for the diet, I have gone back to a high fibre diet and my digestive system is getting back on track. Once I am ready, my coach is waiting for me on the other side of this ordeal to restart my training. I have not signed up for any races and am not in a hurry to get back until I am 100%. When I look at my performance considering all the things I did wrong, I am hopeful that it will dramatically increase when I do it all 100% right.

I would also like to mention here that I am overwhelmed by the support and love shown to me by everyone around me. Whether it is a word of support through social media or over the phone or in person – it makes a difference and it gives me strength. So THANK YOU. I would like to thank a few people specifically – Dad – for worrying about me everyday and going above and beyond to help me and support me in everything I need, Mum – for making me and my recovery a priority, she cooks separate meals for the family and separate for my requirements to help expedite the recovery process, Dharma and Ankush – for ensuring that I am kept constructively occupied and in the thick of things instead of letting me freefall into an abyss of depression, they take upon themselves all the physical work required even from my end and make my rest and recovery a priority even though this is a very busy time for our venture (Protons). Nagaraj Adiga, for not letting me slip away and shirk responsibility for the Bengaluru Marathon even though I tried so hard to and giving me all the support I need to deliver on my responsibilities. Reeth Abraham and Vaishali Kasture – for constantly reminding me that I am not alone and that they are waiting for me to get back in action, sharing their experiences with me and giving me strength to hope. Henna for constantly supporting me and giving me great advice, also not letting me get into a complete workaholic zone. The entire Proton gang ( trainers and trainees alike ) who remind me that I have a huge support system backing me up. And, a few of my very close friends – Gayathrie, Gauri, Narayani, Varoon, Aditya Sreevatsa, Vijay – who are a constant source of entertainment, make me laugh and bring a lot of joy into my life. Thanks for dealing me with me at my worst – you sure are the people I want around me at my best.

For those worried about what I am doing – between our events, trips to the hospital, catching up on reading, movies (IMAX) and spending time with family and friends, I am quite well occupied and think I am contributing my twenty cents to this planet. I will keep this space updated with the progress on my end 🙂

#BangaloreRunning #diet #Injury #Runingrehab