Well, since I'm up anyway...

It's 11:24 p.m. on Wednesday night, and Brian and I are still awake. Both for different reasons, each of whih is equally miserable. He's working on grad school homework that seems to have stumped him. If you know Brian, you know that's pretty damn hard to do. He estimates a bedtime around 2 a.m. for him.

I'm sitting in bed with a throbbing leg that won't really let me sleep.

Yep, I hurt myself again. In my effort to be skinny healthy, I've been running at lunch. I went out on Tuesday afternoon. I felt great. My muscles felt strong, my breathing was steady and even, my knees stayed where they were supposed to, as opposed to shifting all over the place in my leg and causing me serious pain. I was really excited. I thought I was going to make it farther than I had so far. Considering I'm on Week 4, Take 3 of the Couch to 5k program, I was pretty relieved that I would finally be able to finish the workout this week called for.

I had some calf pain when I started out, so I made sure to stretch. I always have calf pain, though, and generally, as I run along and my muscles warm up, it goes away. Tuesday, however, it just kept getting worse and worse until my leg finally just sort of buckled underneath me.

So that chick covered in sweat, limping, and grimacing like she's giving birth, yeah, that'd be me.

I walked for a minute or so, then tried to run again. No dice. My leg gave out again. So I limped back to the courthouse. A walk that normally takes me about six minutes took 15. As the day went on,the pain got worse. I finally called my family doctor, who told me to go to the ER. He thought the possibility of a blood clot was pretty good, given my symptoms and the fact that I'm on birth control.

My first thought was, "Hellloooooooo overreaction." I thought for sure I'd get to the ER and they'd be like, "Oh my God, you big baby. Here's a Tylenol. Go put some ice on it and stop your bitchass whining."

But by the time I had driven the hour home, picked up Ellie and brought her back home to drop her off with Brian, I couldn't put any weight on my leg. I insisted Brian stay home with Ellie, assuring him I'd be able to limp into the ER. I mean, there are tons of parking spots right in front, so no biggie.

Guess what? There were not tons of parking spots right in front. There were NO PARKING SPOTS RIGHT IN FRONT. I had to park in the parking garage, which, at the time, seemed like it was approximately 50 miles from the ER entrance. I called my dad and asked if he could meet me up there, but told him I was giong to try to walk in myself. He told me to stay put. I didn't listen, and gave it a try. I made it abou six inches from my car and decided that falling down in the lot and being run over wasn't really what I came here for. Although, if you're going to be run over by a car, what better place to do it, really?

So my dad came and pretty much carried me into the hospital. They whisked me back to an exam room, where they quickly decided it wasn't a clot, but a torn muscle. Two hours later I left with a script for Vicodin, a super-sexy walking boot, and a hot date with the orthopedic surgeon this morning.

Last night was rough, to say the least. The Vicodin did little to ease the pain I was in. Around 2 a.m. it was so bad I couldn't go back to sleep. I took more medication and sat and cried until it kicked in.

The ortho came to the same conclusion as the ER doctor. No surgery. Stay in the walking boot for a week, then do PT to correct my flawed running posture. I supinate (run on the outside edges of my feet), which causes copious calf and shin problems. If I can correct that, plus get appropriate footwear for the problem, hopefully I'll be able to run without this problem ever again. Oh, and no running for about six weeks. Just when I had started making progress.

Then I went to work, where I hobbled around all day, completely miserable. I'm still miserable. I think I'll be miserable for a while, unfortunately. It's not like I can rest much. I have a 10 month old, a husband in grad school, and a job that requires me to lug around about 40 pounds of equipment when I go from courthouse to courthouse. Not exactly condusive to rest.

Meanwhile, Brian is having some health problems that necessitated a trip to the urologist and ultimately a CT scan. We'll get the results tomorrow, hopefully early in the morning. The doctor said it could be one of two things: kidney stones, or cancer. So, ya know, thanks for that comforting news, Doc. Don't worry, I won't be up all night imagining my life without my husband in it. I don't really even like him that much, so whatever.

Oh, AND, I ordered a new steno machine three weeks ago. I also updated my software and purchased a few accessories. All total, I spent over $6k. My sales rep told me my machine would get to me in 7 to 10 business days. And here I sit, three weeks later, still using my old machine, with no real solid reason for the delay, even though I've sent several e-mails. I'm incredibly irritated. I mean, when you hand someone your credit card and authorize them to charge a chunk of change like that, you expect some pretty expedious service. Not to mention the fact that my old machine, which I've had for nine years (since I was in college) is on the fritz, and I cross my fingers every time I turn it on, hoping it'll make it through the day. I need that new machine, ASAP, and, honestly, I think I'm due a credit or partial refund or something because of the delay. If I don't get a shipping notice tomorrow, I'm going to raise some hell.

Small amount of good news, though: I wore my size 8, pre-preggers work pants today. They're still a little snug, but they were comfortable. I was pretty happy about that. Hopefully, the fact that I'm prohibited from almost any kind of cardio for a while won't negatively affect all the work I've done so far.

Boy, I'm awfully cheery today. Let's tie this all up with some pictures of a cute baby, shall we? (I have a video of her walking, but Blogger won't upload it for some reason.)