I Say "Just Cut Him Already"

So you all know that Spin ran the Boston marathon on an injury and determination.  I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect, but it was Boston after all and a lifelong dream, so I was reluctantly supportive.

Now he has a “sports hernia” that isn’t really a hernia at all, rather a significant groin muscle injury – and not just a pull – that may take months to heal. (One that, yes, affects “other things”.  Yeah. Sucks for me…)

Here’s what the professionals have to say about “sports hernias”, that was confirmed by our favorite surgeon this morning.

The best treatment for sports hernias is nature’s own — to lay off the offending activity and rest for a period ranging from a few weeks to a few months.

Surgery doesn’t heal a sports hernia.  It’s the “recuperating from surgery” that heals them.

REST.

Yeah?  Well, telling my husband to REST is like telling the sun not to shine, the Pope not to be Catholic or me not to drink.

Listen, it’s as simple as this. Had Spin been told he needed surgery and rest for the following several weeks, he’d have healed, been able to run the marathon and put him “back in the saddle” sooner. Ahem.

But no, the surgeon said, “The fact is, you’re just getting old.  Run until it hurts.”

Seriously??

Apparently, a medical degree does not professional advice make. There’s a huge psychological piece he’s clearly missed.

And worse?? This surgeon should know better.  He knows us! The man has done surgeries on us – once on my gallbladder, twice on Spin’s appendix and first hernia (three surgeries in three months – we’re “frequent flyers”) and consulted on Spin’s running-induced critical thyroid illness.

He knows us so well that he asked Spin this morning to send his warmest greetings and tell me I was one of his favorite cases…. (Not sure if he was more impressed by my four years of “natural” gallstone flushes, my diseased gallbladder or the cookies I took him after all three surgeries. After all, the man had seen way too much to come to dinner.)

I digress. Hm. That little rabbit trail ended in a funny place.

Anyhoo – I’m telling you, the only way to get Spin to stop anything is to cut. him. Do us all a favor, Doc – collect your ten grand and send him to bed.

Then maybe we can rethink dinner.

Instead, Spin will continue to train for the ING New York City marathon on this injury, in addition to the knee pain that still nags him, and other activities will have to be shelved.

Indefinitely. (You’d think that alone would be enough motivation.)

Now I ask -  if Heaven forbid, God were trying to protect Spin from something more catastrophic by allowing injuries that are just bad enough to keep the average person from running long distances, and Spin insists on running anyway – what else will God allow before he gets the message?

I’d really hate for him to be hit by a bus or falling piano.

Knowing that even that wouldn’t stop him though, there is only one thing under my control that is for certain.

You will. not. find me pushing his wheelchair on the race course come November.