Self-Diagnosing Running Injuries

How do you handle running injuries?

I hurt the back of my knee trail running the other day. At least, I assume I did it while trail running. It is equally possible, however, that it happened simply because I am old.

Whatever. The point is that I was injured. Instead of going to the doctor, I decided to self-diagnose. With the help of my 19 year old son.

We spent about 20 minutes throwing around terms like ACL and meniscus. We compared me to various standout athletes, football players, basketball players, cyclists. We briefly considered how the injury would impact my future in professional sports, but then decided that it was unlikely to have any impact at all and that my lack of talent would actually be the deciding factor.

In the end, we could not agree on an actual diagnosis. We did agree, however, that the best course of treatment was to whine excessively and tell as many people as possible about the pain. My son even suggested that I fall down as much as possible grasping the back of my leg and crying out in pain.

You scoff at our medical wisdom? Then explain how I woke up this morning virtually pain-free. Yeah.

So, my son and I are looking into opening up our own medical practice for low talent athletes. We lack the actually medical training for such an endeavor, but we'll make up for that with our outrageous fees for a simple office visit.

But I'm curious. Do all runners (those of us without endorsements and shoe deals) self-diagnose and refuse to go to the doctor? Is everyone else's response to these pains to ice it and see how it feels in the morning? Because it seems to have worked for me so far.