She’s Got Legs

I run.

I am not fast, nor could I be considered a “runner”, but I run.

I enjoy getting on a treadmill and “checking out” so to speak for 30-60 minutes. The first time I ever heard the term “checking out” the person was talking about Marijuana, so I figure this is a much better method.

I enjoy being on the treadmill listening to Pandora. Rise Against is my station of choice. I would say Shinedown, but with that comes occasional Hinder and that is unacceptable.

Hinder makes me want to punch MYSELF in the face. Although a great sound, every time I hear a song from Hinder I think “The Worst Boyfriend Ever!”

“Lips of an Angel”, what the heck is that?! Seriously?!

Yes seriously. Unless you are gluten for punishment Hinder is painful to listen to…

The 30-60 minutes are precious to me. I need a few minutes to sweat and not think about my day. I never in my life thought I would say that!!

Two years ago I wasn’t sure I would ever get to run again.

It takes a lot of energy to move these legs up and forward. I admit it, I have large strong legs. I am not ashamed of this fact. They are my grandfather’s legs.

Literally…

I remember the day I figured it out. I was walking into the Biology building at the University of Montana my junior year and thought “huh, that person has legs like GrandpaH.” Then I looked around…NO ONE behind me. Yep, it was a slap in the face at the time, but now I’m proud of them.

They are strong. So strong in fact they grew too big for the fascia covering each muscle group in my lower leg. I would run and feel so much pain in my legs I would have to sit down in tears.

I don’t cry in public…this was real pain.

**Another perk of the job…I can figure out what is going on inside my body and when enough is enough.**

It was enough. Not being able to jog or walk 20 minutes without severe pain after running a half-marathon was NOT ok.

I ended up having three surgeries on two legs to release the fascia around the anterior (front) and lateral (outside) compartments of my lower leg. This allowed me to not have the crushing pain from blood filling up the muscle belly and pushing on the nerves.

You are right, three surgeries is excessive.

See, whahahappend was…I ended up with a staph infection on the left leg (not the bad staph you read about in the papers, but an infection nonetheless). The second surgery was to remove the infection and try to close up the incisions…flash forward TWO months…incisions still were not closed and a smaller infection was still brewing. I needed to get the right leg done, so the docs did me a solid. They cleaned up the left incisions while doing the actual release surgery on the right.

Tada!

Now things are hunky dory! The only problem I have is random toe cramping. I can live with that. I just stretch and get back to my life.

I can honestly say at 33 years of age I LOVE my legs.

Inspiration song…”She’s Got Legs” by ZZ Top