Hi Patty
I know exactly what you mean about needing a break - I had to euthanize my 20 year old cat, and within a year, had to euthanize my 14 y/o cat, and I said that's it - I'm DONE with pets for awhile (despite being a reluctant dog owner) It's been a year now since we lost our last cat, and I'm ready to get another one. Bob however, is NOT!

As for 'admitting' to love the dogs, I've only done that once, to Megan, the day her 6 y/o goldfish died! Although, Fifi has been sleeping with her little face on my shoulder every night because the people in this house have been too tired to kennel the dogs at night

As for my drunken post - I think I posted in a couple of places that night...
:::hangs head:::

So, I came out here this morning to look up how long shin splints keep hurting. Fully prepared to say the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, and I'm going to take the morning off, but then I read your note Patty, and think, ok, if she can walk WITH a headache IN the rain, I can buck up.

So, I'll be going for my walk too hope you have a good one!

atta girl... what's the expression - -no pain no gain - or something like that... just take it a little easy on yourself...

Yeah, I don't think I'll walk as fast, I've just been reading about the Relative Rest approach to getting past shin splint pain...I'm supposed to walk half as far, half as fast...

The annoying bit, is the fact that this is preventable pain - I caused this!
Who knew drinking was bad for your shin heath!?

My daughter's pet hamster died yesterday. We had a funeral today - it was dreadful... When she discovered that 'Benji' had died, she wanted to die so that she could be with him in Heaven. Mind you, we just went and got a new hamster (Joel), and recovery seems to be on it way

Hi M2M. I'm back from my walk, 56 minutes. I'm about to go use www.mapmyrun.com to figure out the distance.

My husb gets shin splints too, so I tried to look up some information about it. This site seems pretty informative: http://www.hughston.com/hha/a.shin.htm

It says to stretch before and after exercise, especially the calf muscles, take anti-inflammatory medicine (aspirin or ibuprofen), consider a change in footwear, and change exercise intensity and duration - which you said you're going to do.

It also says that stress fractures commonly are mistaken for shin splints and that they need time and rest to heal (several weeks), substituting biking or swimming for cardiovascular activity while the bone heals.

Take it easy on your walks until your shins feel better.

I remember putting my 17 year old dog to sleep--it was tough. She was my 8th grade graduation present and lasted til I was 30. I am such a sucker for a dog.

pets are a good thing but it gets hard when you put them down. I had a pit bull awhile back and it was the best dog I have ever had to wards the family but every time it got loose It went after the neighbor boy. We don't have animal control out this way and no money for a vet to take care of it so I had to do it myself. Pets can become part of family and like everything else there are the good that goes with the bad. Most of our dogs have been large breed dogs and they have a shorter life span so it always bothers you when they die.
hope the shin splints are healing. Sometimes it can take a few weeks depended on how bad they are.....

Hi Guys,
I went for my walk (5 miles) and went much slower - it worked out to 17.5 minutes per mile as opposed to 13-14 minutes. It hurts!

Patty, thanks for the info - it's pretty much what I read too, the several weeks to heal thing kinda scared me. If the pain doesn't subside within a week, I'll have it checked out for a stress fracture. The indication of that is pain while at rest & sleeping (which I have) but the location of the pain tends to suggest just a shin splint. Did your head ache go away?

TF - So sorry to hear about Benji. It's so hard on kids (and us adults too!) I hope Joel has a long and happy life!

Cannon, 17 years is a long time to have a pet, my one cat was born under my bed at the house I grew up in and died at 1 week shy of his 20th birthday. It was tough. Not only are we saying goodbye to a good pet, we're marking an end of an era in our lives. For me, that cat was the last living link I had with my mom.

Randy, I am *so* sorry to hear you had to put the dog down yourself While I can completely understand and agree with the reasoning, the actual event must have been so hard

Shin splints...ouchy ouch. My friend had them this week, icing her shins helped a bit, as well as goooood stretching and not walking quite as fast. Take care of yourself...have a glass of wine and rest a bit!

Noooooo!
It's the wine that caused this problem in the first place!!

That stuff is DEADLY!!


(someone remind me of this next time)

At least you're not joining me on the sidelines. This biking sucks. Rest that shin up now and don't do a 'me'.

You're gonna hate this...

Well, let's just say I have a little more empathy for your distress there T2
I always felt for your pain, it was the pain of NOT going for a walk that I was a little flippant with!

It is SO easy to sit back and say, "Just Rest"
It is MUCH harder to do!

hey M2M you are doing so grreat and your poochies are relly cute, we have 3 cats, i did not want 3 cats but like you my family graciously decided that i did, 2 of my cats were rescued and bottle fed, so we are pretty attached, the third one was a half starved stray my kids drug home........ oh yeah an we have a cockatieil bird too the poor thing, but they pretty much leave him alone, (pretty much ) keep up the progress you are my big insperation, and like happyday said take a break if you need to, don't make it worse by being stubborn , go swimming or someother low impact exercise for a while,and Keep on keepin on!!! STAR

Well you did warn me. I shoulda listened. Funny how the age factor was completely ignored, I shoulda known....

Ohhh...swimming, I wish I could!
My daughter is on a competitive swim team, and every time I try and get in the water she becomes a coach to me and drives me insane!

I so can not do what she does!

But I should try!

And isn't funny how kids can turn our homes into a Wild Animal Park!
Keep going Star, you are doing really, really well