Got your attention, didn’t I?
Runner’s World uses this tag line when recommending supplements and other (legal!) drugs for runners, and it always makes me giggle. Or maybe it’s pills to pop. Either way, I use it today as a way to let you know that if your doctor offers you a Medrol Dose Pack for a running injury, you should accept. Then, you should hug her, because this stuff REALLY works to knock down inflammation from a sports injury.
It’s a six-day course of corticosteroids that has you take six pills the first day, five the second, and so on. A sports orthopaedist prescribed it for me last week for my creepily swollen ankle , which stems from a clumsy move in Rock Creek Park last December and has continued to bother me off and on since.
I’d searched some message boards for testimony from other runners about Medrol, and found a few who reported improvements after four days. I hadn’t seen any improvement at all after three days, so I was skeptical.
Yesterday, after a tough 7-mile hill run through northern Silver Spring, I checked out my ankle, and was shocked to see that it looks like an ankle again. I can’t say the swelling’s all gone, but it’s pretty darn close.
So seriously: Medrol Dose Pack. If you’re struggling with a running injury that involves inflammation, ask your doctor about it today (cue cheerful music, cheesy actors running through a sunny park without pain).
Amy Reinink 