I had my physical therapist look at my hip today and he said it was likely gluteus medius tendinitis/muscle strain. I got lucky and don’t have to do formal sessions again, but he gave me some stretches and exercises to work on for the next couple of weeks at home. If those don’t make the injury better, then I’m supposed to call and let him know, but I’m hoping they do the trick. I can’t run until the pain is almost gone or I risk it becoming an ongoing issue. The good news is that I can bike as long as it doesn’t hurt, so I’ll keep doing that in the meantime. Hopefully I’ll be back to pounding the pavement soon!
Month: October 2019
Injuries Galore
Hello, all. It’s been an interesting month to say the least. I thought when I graduated from physical therapy, I would be okay for a while, but a week and a half ago, I did something to my hip while I was running, or more accurately, it just decided to get angry at me for no reason 24 minutes into my run. It hasn’t gone away yet, so Monday I’m planning to call my physical therapist and see if he can look at it. Hip injuries are one of his areas of specialty, so I’m hoping he’ll be able to see me next week. Michigan is thankfully a state where I don’t have to get a referral from a doctor to see a PT, which saves me some time. I love my primary care doctor, but there’s usually a week or two wait for non-urgent conditions. The sooner I can get this injury looked at and treatment started, the better. I haven’t been running since it happened since just walking aggravates it, but at least I can keep up my conditioning by biking since that doesn’t hurt it. I was so close to my goal for easing my way back into tennis, and this is going to set that goal back probably at least a month, if not more. At this rate, I won’t be able to play until spring since I just play at the local parks and the snow will be here before too much longer.
In addition to my hip, I’ve got a few other areas that are starting to rebel against me, so being able to get some help from my PT should hopefully fix those before they become real injuries. The Achilles tendon I had surgery on is bothering me in a different place than it has been, along with my right hamstring just above my knee, my right hip flexor, the outside of my right leg (I suspect it’s the IT band), and both legs just above my knee on the front inside side. Everything but my hip is only bothering me occasionally, but prevention is key. I can’t say I didn’t expect problems after not having been able to run for more than two years, but I didn’t expect everything to fall apart all at once. I made it seven weeks on my running program (this would have been week 9), so at least I was able to start. Hopefully I can get back to it soon. I need to be race ready by February!
Other than all the “fun” injuries, the NSAID trial is going really well. I have a lot less pain in my foot now compared to when I started it. I’ve even had three days without any pain there whatsoever. It’s been such a luxury getting out of bed in the morning and not having pain right away as soon as I stand up, or working all day and having very minimal pain most days. My only concern is with long-term side effects, which I’ll be discussing with my doctor when I go back in a week and a half. I also worry that the medication is masking some of pain from the areas that are bothering me, and I’m hoping I’m not unknowingly doing damage to them.
Lastly, this month I’ve been dealing with jury duty. My local court has people on call for an entire month, so I have to keep calling in to see when I have to show up. Thankfully, I’ve only had to go once so far. Just when the judge was starting to interview prospective jurors, the man on trial decided he wanted to take a plea deal instead of having a trial. I guess he decided it was in his best interest since he showed up late and slightly drunk (a cop had to come do a breathalyzer test on him), and the judge told us all before we left he went to a four year prison sentence with the plea deal instead of risking up to life in prison. I don’t remember all the details, but if he had shown up on time and sober, his sentence would have been a lot less, but the judge said that he had the ability to add time for those reasons in addition to his crimes. Thankfully next week is the last week, and I’m hoping there’s no trial scheduled so I have more time to get some help for my hip. I’m working six days straight next week, so I need all the time I can to properly rehab this problem.
Another Update
I had another appointment with my surgeon yesterday. My Achilles tendon is holding up pretty well, but the unknown issue on the outside of my ankle is still troublesome. The steroid injection only lasted a few days, which seemed to perplex my doctor. He said it should have lasted longer than that. Of course, my problem is apparently really unusual because he still doesn’t know in full what it is. Some of the pain is probably due to the arthritis I have in my subtalar joint (that’s right— I’m old at only 32 years of age), but there’s still something else not right around the area where all the ligaments are. He presented me with a list of options to try, which all focus more on the joint, and I’m just not convinced that’s all that’s wrong.
First up, I am trying a daily prescription anti-inflammatory until my follow up appointment in a month. I’m hoping that ends up helping. If that doesn’t work, I have four other options he presented me with. The next step would probably be another injection, this time with ultrasound guidance, which would take place two months from now. I also could get a brace custom made, but it would be restrictive and not allow me to run. I brought up that concern with him and he said we could wait a little while to try it since I’m training for my 5k. I wouldn’t mind wearing something like that for work, though, since I’m on my feet all day. The only other options he brought up besides the ones above were both surgical. He could either do a surgery to clean the joint up a little bit, or he could do a subtalar fusion. I really don’t want another surgery any time soon, especially a fusion because that would limit the activities I finally have hope of performing in the near future. The only way I would consider surgery again is if that’s the last option and the pain gets so severe every day that I can’t take it anymore.
For now, I’ll just keep doing conservative treatments. Even though some days the pain will get to a 5 or 6 out of 10, it’s not every day and usually not even all day. It’s definitely worse on days I’m working. I’m trying to find a less physical job so I can get some relief, but that’s been a challenge so far. In the meantime, I’ve still been running three days a week. I feel like I should be doing more, but I will not cause myself anymore injury by overdoing it. I have four months until my race, so that’s plenty of time to be conditioning my body once my endurance improves.
Life's A Ride 