Elbow Bursitis

Last weekend I had a pain in my elbow before I went to bed. I thought I bruised it, but when I woke up the next morning, I realized it was more than just a bruise.

That night I couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned in bed trying to get comfortable so my elbow would stop hurting. In the morning my elbow was swollen, in pain, and red. Of course I tried to self diagnose myself and came up with elbow bursitis. I even turned to facebook to see if someone had any idea of what I might have. By the afternoon I admitted defeat and ended up going to an urgent care nearby. I waited for about 2 hours, but I didn't care; I was in pain.

They finally took me to the back and asked me some basic questions. After asking me these questions, they decided to take an X-ray of my elbow just to make sure there were no fractures. After the x-ray I went back to my waiting room to wait for the doctor. The doctor came in and gave me the good news: no fracture! She diagnosed me with elbow bursitis! (WebMD for the win!) She prescribed me with antibiotic to prevent infection and also pain meds.

After leaving the urgent care I try to drop-off my prescription at two different places and was completely unsuccessful. As I got into my car after the second failed attempt, I just started crying. I had ended up spending 3 hours in urgent care and felt like absolute crap. I was so over this already and I'd only been in pain for one day. When my husband got home that night and saw how much pain I was in, he had me contact the closest 24 hour pharmacy and drove me to drop off my prescriptions. They ended up filling the prescription and just like that - I had pain meds!!

Fast forward to today. I haven't really been working out which makes me feel crabby and lazy, but I can feel my elbow getting better. I did manage to workout some this weekend: a 6 mile run on Saturday and a warm-up run with 45 minute stationary cycling. It was awesome!! I'm definitely an individual that needs to workout to maintain my sanity.

I'm taking this week off from any weight lifting, but will continue to run. I had my half marathon this coming weekend, but I'm throwing the race to compete in a 10K for cash prizes. Before the injury I was pretty well trained, but right now I feel slow and not all there. I'll just cross my fingers and hope for the best.

Anywho, I'll keep you all apprised of what's going on. It seems like I'll just stick to running this week and return to OTF the following week. No matter how much I miss OTF, I know that resting my elbow is for the best. Trust me; I'm as stubborn as they come. However, I know when injuries are serious, and I need to be smart and just relax or I'll make it worse. Until the next time, happy trails!!