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ilanaramaWith the start of the new year, there is a sense of beginning anew, of starting over, even though all we've marked is an arbitrary spot on the calendar. Even so, for me things feel like I'm starting from scratch again - actually, like I'm preparing to begin to start from scratch, because I'm not even there yet!
In the fall I was looking forward to taking a short break from running during the second half of October, then ramping up my training for the Boston marathon. Well, you know what they say about best-laid plans. At this point, not only am I not running, I'm unable to do any exercise at all. I'm fat and cranky and hurting. While I have not yet ruled out going to Boston to cheer on my friends, the marathon is out of the question.
The story thus far, if you recall, is that I'd been having persistent tightness in my right butt muscles (the gluteus medius and minimus) that seemed to be causing associated pain and tightness in my ITB, quad, and hamstring, and occasionally all the way down to my calf and peroneal tendon. Massage and manual physical therapy wasn't helping, so I had several sessions of dry needling.
Theraputic dry needling, at least as practiced by my PT, consists of placing a thin acupuncture needle deep into the muscle at a trigger point, and then sending electric pulses into it. The idea is that it acts like very deep massage to release the trigger point. It doesn't hurt, exactly, but let me tell you, lying on a table with an electrified needle in my butt was not in the least fun!
It seemed to help a little the first time, but then things tightened up again. The second time, it ached for the whole day afterward. The third time, I didn't actually feel any difference. I had also continued the more conventional PT, but again, things didn't seem to be getting better, and I suspected they were getting worse. I couldn't ride the bike trainer or even just walk for longer than 20 minutes without pain. And it hurt all the time - not bad, a 1 on the scale of 1-10, but it was there.
When I told Mike (my PT) that I thought it was getting worse rather than better, he suggested that I see a back specialist; he says my lower back is really tight, and he suspects the source of the problem is there, not in my glutes. This is a reasonable possibility, as I've periodically had back issues. So I made an appointment for this Thursday.
And then, on Friday, Britt and I went skiing. This was our first time up to the mountain this season, and we didn't know how his knee or my butt/hip/leg would do, so we planned a relatively short day on easier terrain.
The first couple of runs I felt great. I didn't even notice my usual low-level pain. Plus, I just got new skis this year, longer and smoother and lighter than my old ones, and so it was a real delight to be making turns on the lovely new snow we got on Thursday! Or at least it was for just short of three runs, because I was nearly down to the lift on the third run when suddenly, for no apparent reason, something went SPROING in my back. I came to a screeching halt and tried to put myself into the least painful position while I waited for Britt to realize that I was waving and screaming for a reason :-(
Fortunately, we were not far from the lift that ended at the restaurant, where we'd been planning to stop for lunch anyway at that point. Between the slow lift and the slow service, we took a two-hour break, and I had a pint and a half of muscle relaxant, so our return to the base (which requires two runs with a lift in the middle, taking the easiest path and going slow) was not as miserable as I had feared.
So there you have it. I'm even more crippled up than I was before; I'm sprawled in a recliner, downing copious amounts of Aleve and carefully doing my old McKenzie Method back exercises several times a day. But in a way this is confirmation that the trouble is in my spine, after all. So I'm hopeful that Thursday's appointment will bring some answers, or at least put me on that road.
In the fall I was looking forward to taking a short break from running during the second half of October, then ramping up my training for the Boston marathon. Well, you know what they say about best-laid plans. At this point, not only am I not running, I'm unable to do any exercise at all. I'm fat and cranky and hurting. While I have not yet ruled out going to Boston to cheer on my friends, the marathon is out of the question.
The story thus far, if you recall, is that I'd been having persistent tightness in my right butt muscles (the gluteus medius and minimus) that seemed to be causing associated pain and tightness in my ITB, quad, and hamstring, and occasionally all the way down to my calf and peroneal tendon. Massage and manual physical therapy wasn't helping, so I had several sessions of dry needling.
Theraputic dry needling, at least as practiced by my PT, consists of placing a thin acupuncture needle deep into the muscle at a trigger point, and then sending electric pulses into it. The idea is that it acts like very deep massage to release the trigger point. It doesn't hurt, exactly, but let me tell you, lying on a table with an electrified needle in my butt was not in the least fun!
It seemed to help a little the first time, but then things tightened up again. The second time, it ached for the whole day afterward. The third time, I didn't actually feel any difference. I had also continued the more conventional PT, but again, things didn't seem to be getting better, and I suspected they were getting worse. I couldn't ride the bike trainer or even just walk for longer than 20 minutes without pain. And it hurt all the time - not bad, a 1 on the scale of 1-10, but it was there.
When I told Mike (my PT) that I thought it was getting worse rather than better, he suggested that I see a back specialist; he says my lower back is really tight, and he suspects the source of the problem is there, not in my glutes. This is a reasonable possibility, as I've periodically had back issues. So I made an appointment for this Thursday.
And then, on Friday, Britt and I went skiing. This was our first time up to the mountain this season, and we didn't know how his knee or my butt/hip/leg would do, so we planned a relatively short day on easier terrain.
The first couple of runs I felt great. I didn't even notice my usual low-level pain. Plus, I just got new skis this year, longer and smoother and lighter than my old ones, and so it was a real delight to be making turns on the lovely new snow we got on Thursday! Or at least it was for just short of three runs, because I was nearly down to the lift on the third run when suddenly, for no apparent reason, something went SPROING in my back. I came to a screeching halt and tried to put myself into the least painful position while I waited for Britt to realize that I was waving and screaming for a reason :-(
Fortunately, we were not far from the lift that ended at the restaurant, where we'd been planning to stop for lunch anyway at that point. Between the slow lift and the slow service, we took a two-hour break, and I had a pint and a half of muscle relaxant, so our return to the base (which requires two runs with a lift in the middle, taking the easiest path and going slow) was not as miserable as I had feared.
So there you have it. I'm even more crippled up than I was before; I'm sprawled in a recliner, downing copious amounts of Aleve and carefully doing my old McKenzie Method back exercises several times a day. But in a way this is confirmation that the trouble is in my spine, after all. So I'm hopeful that Thursday's appointment will bring some answers, or at least put me on that road.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-04 07:35 pm (UTC)My left shoulder isn't working right and I will be seeing the doc about that soon.
My goal this year is to lose the weight (same as most years) and run a marathon near my 50th birthday.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-01-05 12:15 am (UTC)