I was thinking of having a gripe about a calf issue I'm carrying at the moment since my last race but reading about MrFinn, Trent & Spaniel here I cannot complain.

Good luck all with finding solutions to the issues.  Being a desk jockey can definitely play havoc with the hips & hammies unfortunately.

As for the age factor, there are some seriously good runners at my club who are running amazing times in there 50's so don't give up!

So I got a call from the specialist's office. Soonest they can get me in is January 18, 2016. I said that was not acceptable. They called me back and said they could overbook me on Tuesday. Better...

Wow, they're "booked" that far in advance?  Next week is much better.  Hope they get it figured out.

I'm biting the bullet and getting an appointment for an MRI on the calf/achilles.  Will see the doc on Monday.  Things have been progressing very slowly.  I've had some days where things are fine and I feel that I can start up to only have things flare back up.  The pain has mostly been in the soleus now.  The achilles is feeling fine but something else is going on.  I had a blast running around last week but come Monday, my lower leg was numb and sore all day/night.  Saturday, I did an hour spin class with the wife.  We then went to our daughter's soccer game only to have it cancelled due to a little rain.  The whole team wanted to stick around and scrimmage, so the coaches split up the team.  I took half-2 and the other coach took the rest.  We ran and played for an hour.  Then on Sunday, the kids and wife ran a 5k.  I signed up the morning of as everything was feeling good.  A friend was running/pacing his 12-yo, so I decided to join him.  He came in at 18:11 and we crossed at 18:14 to ensure he got the win.  It was good chatting with the friend and working through the race with his boy.  The lower calf was tight at the end but didn't think much of it and stretched it out.  It was a beautifal fall day and I was just happy being out there running.

Yeah, was just coming in to do the update

And ... ?

So Tuesday morning I got a nerve conduction study and electromyleogram. Basically, that is where they shock your nerves and also put needles in your muscles to measure nerve and muscle electricity. It is as fun as it sounds. I suspect some people probably don't tolerate the procedure very well. Anyhow, all normal. That means this is not something that blows away nerves or muscles, including Polio, Guillian Barre Syndrome, a badly slipped disc, etc. So all good on that front.

Then I went and saw the rheumatologist. Nice guy. He asked a load of questions and reviewed all my tests and examined me. We talked about my running (or lack thereof recently), and he really let me tell my story. He was pretty much as stumped as I have been, my internist has been and the neurology doc was. Anyhow, the thinks is sounds like muscle edema that increases with usage, resulting as an adverse reaction to the flu vaccine I received 4 days before the symptoms began. Usage = walking over the course of the day, which is why it is worse late in the day. Muscle edema = that feeling you get along with your DOMS after a marathon, where your pages are achy, crampy and feel like the muscles are sticky when you try to move them. He said that he could get an MRI of the muscle, but that would not do much. He did check a Lyme test, just to be sure. Mostly, he said that this should improve over the coming weeks (it seems to be) and I should take ibuprofen (eek!) as needed to keep from being a total slug. He also suggested no impact sports until I come off the ibuprofen...

I submitted a vaccine adverse event reporting system form to CDC, just in case. I guess we will see in a few months whether other people have had this reaction this year.

Never taking a Flu vaccine.  Not like I am going to pass on my Flu to anyone else if I get it, as I rarely leave my house these days.

Even if we decide that this is definitively caused by the flu vaccine, I will likely choose to get it again and again...

I forget but was this a possible side effect of the vaccine?

I will still get mine as well.

Yup, a confusing coincidence...

Wife gets the flu vaccine every year, gets sick anyway.  I haven't taken it yet, and not gotten sick.

Hard to know, but possibly. We will see what the side effect surveillance shows when the data are in come the Spring

I forget but was this a possible side effect of the vaccine?

JIC anyone thought the Monkeys have gotten to me (they well might have, just not in this case),  Wife probably gets Flu because she comes in contact with a half dozen of them most days during the season.

I just finished watching that show, and the ending bothered me a bit, could it happen?