Doctor, I Warned You!

I had my post-surgery check-up with the doctor on Wednesday.  I told her how well I had been recovering from the C-section, how I had already done a few slow walks totalling almost 6 miles, and how I had several registered nurse friends worried about how active I'd been so soon after major surgery. In the hospital, another doctor in her practice had seen me each day as my doc was on vacation.  Now I had made it very clear to this doctor I was a runner - and not in an ambiguous sense.  I told her total mileage over the year and averaged month to month.  I told her the various distance races I ran while pregnant.  I didn't want her thinking it was a case of "I run/walk a couple miles a few times a week".  I wanted her to know that I'm the kinda stupid to go do 8 miles because I kinda feel like it.

Given how great my recovery was, in the hospital this doctor cleared me to walk a little more and a little faster each time as long as I felt good. Note that running was still a no-no for 6 weeks.  So to me, a 2.7 mile slow walk 8 days after a C-section seemed rational.

Well, my doctor was NOT thrilled.  She told me to lay off the walking for another week or two.  Turns out, even though the incision was looking great, the thing I didn't understand was that the sutures on all the inside layers could rub rub rub together while walking, even a slow walk, and could lead to infection or hemmorhage.

Now a couple days later, and I'm a little annoyed again.  Doc knows I'm Type A, knows my training history, and lets me off with a "take it easy for a week or two?"  So what happens on day 15, when stupid crazy me does a 12 mile walk?  Okay okay, I'm going to try to stay really reasonable and rational.  But I'm wishing she had quantified what's considered okay and not okay in her book a little better since we'd already had a difference in expectations.

With producing a race on 1.1.11 (the New Year's Day Half Marathon), I'm not planning on doing anything until I'm past that event.  And then I figure a couple miles here and there at a walk will be okay until January 15 (6 weeks post-C-section), when it's okay to start slowly running again.