Mike's Marathon Blog

I have spent the past few weeks trying to get an appointment at Brigham and Women’s for a 2nd opinion on my herniated disc. Lahey was pushing for the injections, people have told me just to get surgery, others tell me to go to the chiropractor, physical therapy, rest, stop running, so on and so forth. I needed someone to tell me what to do. My back injection was scheduled for October 13th, so I needed to know what my game plan was before then. Also, I have to run one of the biggest marathons in the world in a month and I don’t really want to cripple myself at mile 20.

My friends Mark and Miriam called around and got the name of a great back specialist at B&W’s. With our amazing health care system being what it is and maxing out my cell minutes, I finally got a referral and an appointment with the guy last week. My plan going into it was that I was doing with whatever he recommended. If he said surgery, I was scheduling an appointment. If he said ‘you’re fine,’ I was planning on sucking it up and dealing with it.

After a 2 and 1/2 hour commute into Boston and a long tour of every hallway in the hospital, I was told the doctor was in surgery. Of course he was! Why wouldn’t he be in the OR during the time of my 10:45 appointment that took me a month to get? I gave the receptionist my number and told her to call me when he was back. I felt like I was at the Olive Garden on a Saturday night. They should have those buzzing, vibrating things that light up when you’re table is ready. After an amazing turkey club, a quick walk to Children’s to visit Miriam, 800 hands of Texas Hold’em on my BB and 3 hours later, the doctor was ready to see me.

I guess it was worth the wait. He was an awesome guy and actually stayed in the room and talked with me for probably 20 minutes (still in his surgery clothes). He asked me a bunch of questions, I asked him a bunch of questions, I told him I ran 22 miles a few days ago and that I was running NYC in a few weeks, he laughed. This was his comment about the race, “I ran NYC a few years ago with someone else’s number. It was harder than I thought. You might blow your disc out running, but I would do it. Bring your MRI CD with you, just in case.” Marathon number, check. MfM singlet, check. Gel packs, check. MRI CD in case my spine snaps in half, check.

Treatment……he chose the ‘nothing’ route. He thought since I was so young (not sure he noticed my hairline like the other guy?) and so athletic (never thought I would say that in my life) that the disc would heal on it’s own. He wasn’t against the spine injections, but urged against it since NYC is only a few weeks away. He recommended I take it easy for a weeks/months after the race. He also told me to get another MRI at the beginning of next summer to see if the disc had healed or not. If it’s still herniated, then possibly consider an injection at that time.

Unfortunately, it is probable that my back will always be an issue. Like the guys at Lahey said, some people are lactose-intolerant, others have bad skin, some are glutarded. You take the cards you’re dealt, right? Luckily my back has felt better over the past couple of weeks. I haven’t been doing anything different, so hopefully that means it’s starting to heal? I have no idea.

As of now, I plan on following the doctor’s orders to rest over the winter. But who knows? Maybe someone will have an extra Boston number?