Are You Hurt Or Are You Injured?

Remember the movie “The Program” from the early 90s? It was a pretty badass movie about a fictional college football team starring Omar Epps, Halle Berry, and James Caan. I was in high school at the time and while I wasn’t on the football team, I clearly remember everyone talking about the movie when it came out. In the original release, there was a scene involving players on the team showing their bravery by lying down in the middle of a busy road while cars zoomed past.  This seemed like a pretty cool idea except that it ended up being imitated by some teenage football players in real life…2 died while several others were seriously injured. Apparently, having kids get run over by cars while lying in the middle of the road wasn’t exactly what the Disney brand was going for so they pulled the scene.

In addition to that crazy situation, the movie also produced some very memorable quotes from their many great football action scenes including:

- “Let’s open up a can of kick ass and kill them all, let the paramedics sort them out!”
- “Let’s put the women and children to bed and go lookin’ for dinner!”
- “Are you hurt, or are you injured?”

That final quote/question is brilliant. “Are you hurt or are you injured?” was asked by the coach after a player gets tackled hard and goes down holding his leg. When the player looks up and has no idea what the coach means he gets told “well, if you’re injured, I can’t let you go back in, but if you are hurt then you can play.” Predictably, the player hears this and says he is only hurt and then runs back limping onto the field. It’s 1 of about 262 meathead scenes from the movie…

However stupid it may seem, I have actually asked myself that question a lot lately in my quest for 35 for 35. My joints are constantly hurting on runs and my left knee has really been bothering me for the last few months. My workouts are putting constant pressure on my body and I keep pushing more and more. Since launching my blog on December 18, here are some stats for you:

- 34 days have gone by
- 31 days I have worked out (91.1%)
- 17 hours of swimming
- 15.5 hours on a bike, 258 miles (combo of road bike and spin classes)
- 7.5 hours of running, more than 52 miles
- 5 hours of lifting weights
- 17,345,761 times I’ve told myself that I’m awesome

In total, I’ve put in 45 hours of working out in the last 34 days. It feels great mentally but may not be smart physically. As I mentioned, my left knee has really been bothering me and has forced me to limit my running. For some perspective on the pain, I’ve fallen over a few times on my first step getting out of bed because the pain was so strong. Taking significant time off from working out may make sense but it is so hard for me to do. If you think about it, there is such a fine line between being smart and being a pussy when it comes to pain…it’s really tough to know what to do. Up until now, I have kept telling myself that I’m hurt, not injured.

Finally, this week I caved and went to see an Orthopedist. My session started out quickly with the doctor asking what I think is one of the dumbest questions consistently asked about injuries:

“On a scale of 1 – 10, with 10 being the worst pain you can possibly imagine, how much does your knee hurt?”

I’m officially starting a global campaign to change the wording on this question. I mean, I don’t know about you, but I can imagine some pretty f*cked up things. Let’s see…I would consider a 10 something like my eyelids being held open while needles are stuck through my eyes as my body is set on fire and a Great White is biting off my left arm. So, I guess if that is a 10 I would consider my knee pain about a 1. Yes, I realize I’m a difficult patient.

Anyway, after we agreed on a pain scale and where my knee pain stood, he suggested x-rays and an MRI. The good news is that the x-rays showed I don’t have a stress fracture and there isn’t arthritis in the knee. The MRI should be able to tell if I have ligament or tendon damage but those results aren’t immediately available like an x-ray.

So, am I hurt or am I injured? Well, we’ll finally know for sure when I get the MRI results back tomorrow.

Wish me luck,
Schmeis