Pain

I am in pain.
I know how I arrived at this pain.
I am not exaggerating this pain.
This pain is making right concentration very difficult.

I always thought that when one of my marines had "shin splints" that they were full of shit and should drink some water and get over their wimpy little attitude.

I did a five mile run on Friday. Not fast, really quite slow. Over the weekend my shins were sore but the pain was tolerable. On Monday I did a three mile interval run where I would jog for two minutes and run fast for one minuet. That evening I hurt bad enough for it to be noticeable even the next day. Today I had intended to go on a medium pace three mile run and could not even finish it.

Disturbed, I went to see the Corpsman. The "Doc" said that there are two possible explanations and assured me that I was not just being a pussy. Explanation one is that there are hairline fractures on my shins. Ouch. Explanation two is that the muscles on the front part of my leg are pulling away from the bone. Boo, gross even. He also said that I should see a real doctor so I scheduled an appointment for tonight.

This reminded me of Nishijima Roshi's "Zazen, a better way of experiancing pain" So I re-read the article and am trying to not be emotionally involved with the mussel separating from bone in my leg. This is more difficult than it sounds but I think it is working for me. Except when I get up and walk. I am interested in what the Doctor will say. I will let you know.