I'm still sitting tight waiting to get the results of my arthrogram. Normally this waiting would drive me bonkers, but I've been out of town for work since right after the test was done, so the time has weirdly flown by.

Normally when I travel to new places for work, I try to squeeze in at least one run because it's such a good way to explore places. Since that's not an option for me right now, I tried to get creative with my evenings and make sure I could still see a few sites.



Last week I was in San Diego, and my hotel was minutes away from Miramar Air Station -- you know, the place where Tom Cruise and crew did their training in Top Gun.

One morning during the conference I was attending, we heard these super loud noises. Some of us walked outside during a break, and we were treated to an air show from the Blue Angels. They were flying in groups of twos and fours, zipping between buildings.



During one of the evening networking events, I also got to enjoy a gorgeous sunset over the Pacific.

My favorite part of the San Diego trip was my last night when I rented a car and drove up the coast to Oceanside, where I got to see Charlie's house from Top Gun.



As a friend pointed out to me, the house wasn't blue in the movie, but other than that, it looked pretty much exactly the same -- even though the other houses in the block have all been torn down to make room for a new hotel.

Between the Blue Angels and seeing Charlie's house, I basically felt like I was living in Top Gun. Obviously, I was having a very fangirl moment.

This week I've been in Boston for work, and I've used my free time to catch up with friends who live here. On Tuesday, I met friends for a game at Fenway Park. It was my first time ever seeing a game there, and we had a great time.

On Monday, I explored some of the more historic part of Boston, like the Old North Church and strolled along part of the Freedom Trail.

It's been a busy couple of weeks, and I'm definitely looking forward to getting back home and back to a normal routine. It's rare for me to travel this much for work (especially with back to back trips like this), and I'm looking forward to a home-cooked meal and sleeping in my own bed again.

Hey friends. Long time, no blog. Well that's not totally true. I've actually started a couple of posts that I've never published because they were so downright depressing.

This injury makes it really hard to write a blog called Jess Runs since I can't exactly run. Hell, some days I can't even walk. Plus I figure people probably get sick of reading depressing woe-is-me posts about my hip. So I haven't felt super inspired to sit down and write.

But today I at least have a semblance of an update to share.




As you might have gathered, I'm beyond frustrated with this injury. I've had consistent pain in my hip for a solid six months now, and it's extremely frustrating to not be able to do things I enjoy doing and to just be in pain from little things like walking to work or getting out of my car.

There have been days where I've literally been driven to tears by my current limitations. Working out has always been my number one stress reliever, and with that option basically off the table, I've struggled to keep stress and anxiety from piling up.

Honestly, there are times I think the mental pain from this injury is worse than the physical pain.

But there's a small chance my months of tests and physical therapy and doctors visits might be coming to an end.

I had an arthrogram and a cortisone injection on Thursday.

An arthrogram, for those not familiar, is basically an MRI where the doctor injects dye right into your hip joint and then takes a bunch of pictures to see what's what.



At the same time that my doctor was injecting the dye for the arthrogram, she also injected some cortisone into the joint to see if that would do anything to provide some immediate relief from the pain.

If you've been reading for more than a hot second, you know that I have a history of passing out around needles. So when I saw the size of the needle for the cortisone injection, I figured I should probably give the nurse a heads up.

The nurse and doctor were both pretty awesome through the whole procedure. They talked to me the whole time and told me what to expect. The doctor said the needle would be in my hip for no more than ten minutes. (To me ten minutes is an insanely long time). It also felt so strange to feel it moving around in my joint. (They numbed the area first so it wasn't painful. I could just feel this weird thing inside my leg).

But as soon as I went to stand up after everything was finished, things got a little dicey. I got super light-headed and started seeing spots. I laid right back down and hung out for a bit until I felt better. The nurse also hooked me up with some apple juice. I just barely managed to not pass out.

I'm still waiting on the results from the arthrogram. My orthopedic surgeon is hoping this set of images will more clearly show if my labrum is torn or not. My first MRI indicated it might be, but it wasn't super clear. If that's what the results show, the next step is likely surgery. I have a lot of mixed feelings about potential surgery so if that's the outcome, I'll have a lot of stuff I need to sort out in my mind.

In the meantime, the cortisone does seem to be helping a little bit. Normal walking doesn't bother me too much anymore, but I can certainly tell there's still discomfort there. I'm grateful for the little bit of relief it's bringing, especially since I have a couple of work trips the rest of this month and will be spending a lot of time in uncomfortable seats on airplanes.

So that's the latest. I hope it wasn't too much of a downer.