Hopefully the epidural will do the trick.
I tore my ACL in 2006 playing flag football; jumped up while running, cleat stuck in the mud as I came down on one leg and hyperextended forward over the locked knee. It was pretty dramatic in that I dented the head of my femur. I had to rehab that first, then had surgery (cadaver) and rehab'd after. That injury was sudden and painful but sort of peaked. Same with the surgery; first 3 days were just awful but then life got quickly back to normal. I did phys therapy like a maniac.
In 2011, herniated a disc. Different kind of injury with the sciatica and the constant feeling like you would sneeze and send everything in to spasm. Totally a strange and stressful kind of injury; the unpredictable nature made life suck. Was taking pain killers that would magically allow me to dance around. Crazy shit.
In any case, I got the epidural and it worked. Lots of rehab; I would say the rehab for the ACL post surgery was shorter than the rehab for the back post epidural. But the rehab does really help you make sure your glutes are firing and you have balance on both sides.
I did Wildlfower Olympic after the back rehab in 2:29. The hopeful news is the next year, dropped it down to 2:23.
Point being, based on my experience, you can recover and get back.
So fingers crossed the epidural will work for you. And it's ok to take a break from running. In addition to PT 3x/week, I just swam (no kick turns) and gradually started riding (no aero bars). Eliptical trainers are good, too.
I tore my ACL in 2006 playing flag football; jumped up while running, cleat stuck in the mud as I came down on one leg and hyperextended forward over the locked knee. It was pretty dramatic in that I dented the head of my femur. I had to rehab that first, then had surgery (cadaver) and rehab'd after. That injury was sudden and painful but sort of peaked. Same with the surgery; first 3 days were just awful but then life got quickly back to normal. I did phys therapy like a maniac.
In 2011, herniated a disc. Different kind of injury with the sciatica and the constant feeling like you would sneeze and send everything in to spasm. Totally a strange and stressful kind of injury; the unpredictable nature made life suck. Was taking pain killers that would magically allow me to dance around. Crazy shit.
In any case, I got the epidural and it worked. Lots of rehab; I would say the rehab for the ACL post surgery was shorter than the rehab for the back post epidural. But the rehab does really help you make sure your glutes are firing and you have balance on both sides.
I did Wildlfower Olympic after the back rehab in 2:29. The hopeful news is the next year, dropped it down to 2:23.
Point being, based on my experience, you can recover and get back.
So fingers crossed the epidural will work for you. And it's ok to take a break from running. In addition to PT 3x/week, I just swam (no kick turns) and gradually started riding (no aero bars). Eliptical trainers are good, too.