Building My Body Back Up To Run
A post health emergency recovery journey
Earlier this March, gyms in NYC were shutting down due to the looming shelter in place rules. I looked up at-home workouts, figured out where in my tiny apartment I could do stretches and lunges, and dug up my resistance bands from my closet.
Weeks later, I was laid off from my full-time job, had to move back home, and I tried to figure out a workout schedule. I began to speed walk or jog two or three miles in the morning or I’d do a workout video. And when it would be too cold or rainy outside, I’d walk up and down the stairs and lunge across the kitchen and living room and then back to my younger brother’s old bedroom.
But by late March my tailbone area began to feel sore. In a few days, I couldn’t sit or walk. I called emergency rooms and clinics for days until one near me agreed to check what was wrong. Fluid that had trapped under my skin turned into an abscess that needed a mini surgery. A doctor inserted a drain tube in what was a very painful procedure and packed me with gauze and bandages.
I tried going for a walk one morning in early April. Armed with a bottle of water, and having taken something for the pain, I attempted to walk to a park by me. I didn’t make it halfway there before I turned back. The nurse that came to change my…
