Do what others have said and find a sports medicine specific doctor , ask other runners in your area . I wasted a couple months with a regular ortho  the only thing he did get right was,  it was my knee . Same thing just happened with a friend who is not a runner , she had knee pain , turns out after the second doctor, many months,  much pain and pt she needs a new hip .

Between getting injured and surgery I spent 6 months mostly hiking , some biking . Never occurred to me I wouldn't run again , I just planned where I was going to run once it healed .

Not sure what I can say that would help, so I'll try to describe what happened to me and what I did. It all started shortly after I'd run some of my best races in years - a pain in my groin/hip area. I went to the doctor, went through PT, seemed to get better, and started running again. As soon as I started to get back to decent racing fitness and good mileage, the pain came back. This went on in cycles for about 4 years. The last time it was definitely more in the groin area and I couldn't run more than a mile before the pain was so intense I had to stop and walk. Through all this the diagnosis ranged from a strain to possibly an undetected hernia. Finally the insurance coverage for PT ran out and it didn't seem to be helping anyway. At that point I considered giving up racing and running after over 40 years of it being a part of my life. I don't know what happened, perhaps there was a delay in the effectiveness of the last couple PT sessions where we tried some new exercises, but the pain disappeared. That was a little over two years ago. Initially being afraid of another recurrence I limited myself to my first love, the short track races, 800m and mile, which required less mileage than road races. I'm still afraid of the least little pain in that area, but continue to do exercises to strengthen and stretch the area, and more importantly have been able to train injury free for the last two years plus. If the pain hadn't disappeared I might have switched to race walking or simply retired from active running and hung around the forums offering advice, both solicited and unsolicited.

No good doctor should tell you stop running.  If one does, find a new one.

Come on.  You and I have discussed this before.  A reasonable response to *some* injuries requires, at times, a temporary running hiatus.  Continuing to run through some injuries can prevent healing or further aggravate the existing damage.  A good health care provider knows this and will work with the injured athlete with a goal to resume whatever activity is temporarily sidelined.

Come on.  You and I have discussed this before.  A reasonable response to *some* injuries requires, at times, a temporary running hiatus.  Continuing to run through some injuries can prevent healing or further aggravate the existing damage.  A good health care provider knows this and will work with the injured athlete with a goal to resume whatever activity is temporarily sidelined.

I think I was the first to bring up the "doc said stop... " bit.  It wasn't as an overall condemnation of the medical profession.

First doctor, primary care physician, is totally cool with my running.  Has the newspaper article about the weirdo 70-year old that runs fifty miles at a whack (infrequent whacks), likes to ask about endurance stuff.  Listens to my questions, does referrals as needed.  All is good.

Second doc is an orthoped, a specialist -- crossing over to the "If surgery is successful, how many years of added comfortable life are we offering here?" or something like that.  There is no reason for the accounting department to care about my running.  The actuarial tables say I am on the downhill side of the curve.  It is simply not worth it (for them) to invest in me (premiums).  I could change programs, pay a higher premium and get into the "The U.S. of A. has the best health care in the world" group.  The orthoped is not going to argue for me, he is dependent on the accountants approving protocols and age is part of the approval process.

The docs we had at our last home (Corvallis, Oregon) were totally concerned with our health, both as patients and as runners.  They were both runners.  If a person has the luxury to shop around for doctors, yay!

Jon - something you shared sparked another reason why I think I am having such a hard time mentally - it's the long trail runs I miss.  I love going out for miles where I know the only people I would see are other runners and that is rare at some of the places I ran.  I would run in state game lands but be so far in that I know hunters would not venture in that far.  That was true bliss for me.  That is not something I can hike but hiking will certainly occur in the near future.

jamezilla - puzzles - not so fun for me...my kids are better at them than I am

valerie and AT - I am very close to looking again for a Dr.  I so stubborn when it comes to this.

wc - thanks for sharing your story.  I bet that was very furstrating after running that many years.  I know the feeling about being concerned about every little ache and pain after dealing with injury.  Glad to hear you are doing well.  Gives me hope.

If knitting doesn't suit your fancy, you could try tackling this.

 

"Includes a mini-dolly for transporting the box."  

Maybe I'll stick to knitting.

Update: saw an orthopedic Dr. today.  I asked for a Sports Med Dr.  Unsure if that is what I got.  He was very nice but I got some blank stares and "I'm not sure what to tell you" type of comments.  So he is going with some prednisone to help get some swelling down (although he doesn't see any swelling), an MRI to see what we can see in my left knee (because the x-rays they did today showed nothing), and a round of PT for my groin issues (which may be the biggest mystery of all - he really didn't know what it could be).  At least I didn't get the "well you just shouldn't ever run again" comment.  But I also got the "is that called an ultra?" question when I told him how long the race was I ran in November. 

Looking on the bright side, no abnormalities in my joints (hips and knees).

I really didn't want to do anymore PT so I am not sure about following through on that.  The Dr. was really not sure that a MRI was needed - he very much left it up to me.  We scheduled it but I am unsure that it truly is needed.  Maybe I will do the prednisone and see how things go from there.  Or maybe I will take up knitting and find some knitting forums...