As a runner, one experiences aches and pains. Some aches develop slowly and are simply weary muscles at an end of a hard week of training. While other aches strike suddenly. These are the aches that one worries about. These pains are the ones that have the possibility to be season ending. These aches and pains are the ones that one fears.

Tampa’s Jessica Butler has had her experiences with the slow aches but last year she experienced the fearful pain, “I went on a run a couple of days after my first college cross-country  race (Sept 5^th Early Bird classic where she placed third). Half way through the run I stopped to stretch, when I began running back I couldn’t move, I was limping and it hurt to run so I had to walk back to school. I never had a major injury so I assumed it was a sore muscle. I never thought it would be a stress fracture; I assumed that if I had a stress fracture then I wouldn’t be able to run on it so I continued running” she explains. It seemed like her college career might be over before it even started.

Coach Slaven brought her to a chiropractor where she was misdiagnosed with a pinch nerve. She continued to run but was still in pain. “When I thought it was a pinched nerve I didn’t think it was a big deal. I thought that I could get adjusted and then be able to finish my season” she said.

It was not until December that she stopped running and went to a specialist. Dr Audie Rolnick ordered a CT of Jessica’s sacral wing and a full body bone scan. The diagnosis was not quite what they were expecting. They had found 2 areas of concern, her right sacral wing and left orbit. Jessica was referred to Dr. Pitcher who is the head of the orthopedic Oncology dept at the University Of Miami. Dr. Pitcher ordered a detailed CT scan of her brain and her right sacral wing. “They found out that there were three “hot spots” when I took a full body scan. Two were in my hip region and the other was in my left orbital. I was afraid of the results when I saw a white orb show up on the screen as I was getting scanned. The doctor doing the scan asked me if I was wearing earrings and I told her I wasn’t then she took the scan of my head again and a white orb still showed up. I had to wait a week for the results and I was really nervous” she explains.

Dr Pitcher found 3 lesions, one inside the bone of the left orbit, right sacral wing and left pelvis. On Dec. 23 2008, Jess had surgery to remove two lesions from inside the bone of her left pelvis and right sacral wing. A triple bone graph was done to fill the holes that were left in her bones and to patch the fracture that was found. Jess spent her Christmas holiday on the couch and on crutches until January.  This time spent on the couch made Jessica more determined to come back.

“After my surgery I was on crutches and the rest of my winter break was spent on them. A week before spring term I was cleared to start walking. I started walking 2-3 miles, biking and swimming. The only way to describe how I felt was frustrated and embarrassed.  I just came off of a great high school track season and I was expecting a lot for my freshman year and 2 months off of running and walking 2 miles wasn’t part of it. Everything I worked for and built up was now for nothing. All the miles I put in over the summer and all the long runs in Florida’s heat and humidity were for nothing. I was frustrated about the fact that I was now at ground zero and it was like I was back in middle school just beginning to run. That had to be the roughest part. I went from walking, biking, and swimming to walking and running. The first day back to running I walked 10 minutes, ran for 5 minutes, walked for 5 minutes and ran for 5 minutes. Those 5 minutes of running felt like miles, I was out of breath, getting side stitches, and every stride was a struggle” Jessica states.

By July, Jessica was back up to 80 mile weeks but she began to have pain in her lower back yet again and it was soon discovered it was a crack in her tailbone. It was only a minor setback in her eyes. “I wasn’t worried when I found out that it was a cracked tailbone. But I was worried at first when I didn’t know what it was. It felt like a pain in my lower spine and that’s how it felt when I had a stress fracture so I was worried that I started running too soon and too many miles. I was relieved when it was my tailbone” she said.

Jessica came back with plenty of drive this past season. Jessica placed 3rd in Pre-Nationals, 2^nd in the Sunshine State conference and 2^nd in the NCAA South region and ran a seasons best of 21:31 in the 6K. Nationals did not quite go as planned for Jessica finishing 62^nd and in 22:28.1. Jessica is not going to let that get her down.  “I really haven’t thought about my long term goals I just know that I want to be strong physically and mentally in my races and all of the events that I overcame have helped me achieve this. Over the next years I want to become a top contender at Nationals” she explains.