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!
Category: running
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.
Putting My Best Foot Forward
Today was a much deserved day off work. I’ve been covering for my boss while he’s out of town and it’s been hectic. Yesterday physically kicked my butt and I woke up with some pain and swelling in my bad ankle. Nevertheless, I decided to test it on an interval run this morning and it held up. Lately, I’ve been training with a friend once a week, and it’s a lovely change of pace from going alone. I think the extra motivation and having someone to help push me when I get tired is really helpful. After today’s adventure, we went to our favorite cafe for a bubble tea. It was a great way to cool off and relax a little.
After she went home, I took a quick shower and went to get some dedicated running shoes. My physical therapist gave me a referral slip to a locally owned running shop where they assess your gait and foot type and help you pick out exactly what you need. I tried on about a dozen pairs before I found the shoes that felt best. My right foot (the one with the issues) needed to be corrected with extra support, and I felt the difference just walking in them in the store. I’m really hoping they feel just as good when I run in them for the first time. I’ve been having more pain today than I’ve had in a while, so even though I was planning to run tomorrow, I’ll have to see what the morning brings. It would probably be wiser to hold off until Sunday. Either way, I’ll get to try my new shoes soon, so I’m trying to be patient. It’s nice that I look forward to the next day I can train; I’ve never been a runner before, but I’ve been enjoying it for the month I’ve been doing it (even though it wears me out almost as much as work).
In case you’re curious, these are the shoes I bought. Let me introduce the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 19. I also love the paragraph on the inside of the box, so I’ll share that as well. I’m hoping I can give these shoes plenty of adventures!
It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint
Ironically, I highly doubt a marathon will ever be in my future 😀 It’s been a week full of news, some good, some not so good. I’ve been off work all week, which has been nice. I really needed the break to help my foot feel better. It’s never happy when I spend all day on it nearly every day. It’s been feeling pretty good this week, but I’m trying not to get too spoiled.
I had my follow-up with my surgeon on Wednesday. My Achilles tendon is getting there, slowly, but it’s still making forward progress. However, the issue with the outside of my ankle on that same foot has been feeling worse. It’s been holding me back more than my Achilles tendon some days. The doctor looked at it and said he wasn’t 100% sure what it was, but that it could possibly be an impingement of some sort. He asked if it hurt bad enough to try a steroid injection, and I immediately said yes, so that’s what he did. It didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would, but it was still not a great feeling. It felt like a strong ache deep inside my ankle. Some of the swelling is down now, but I’m not sure if it’s because of the shot or because I’ve been off work so many days now. I guess I’ll find out next week. The doctor said that he’s going to check my foot again in a month and decide from there whether he wants me to have some tests done. He wants to know how the steroids worked first. He told me he was fine with me running on it in the meantime, so I’m glad I can keep trying to work on that as long as it will let me.
Thursday I had another physical therapy appointment. I hadn’t been in close to three weeks, so it was nice to be able to get a little extra relief. My therapist wanted to wait until after I had my next doctor’s appointment to find out what was going on with the side of my ankle. He spent a lot of time with me discussing realistic goals and making sure I didn’t try to push myself too much. I was told it would be better to wait until spring to attempt a 5k run because he wanted me to increase my training very slowly so I don’t end up making anything worse. So naturally, tennis and martial arts will be pushed back as well, but he did tell me that I can hit the ball against a board if I was careful not to do jarring movements. Not quite the same, but at least it’s something. He told me that once I can run a mile without pain, then I can look at getting back to some activities slowly. That still seems like a long way off. My therapist taught me some new exercises to help build strength and balance in my right leg, which is what it needs. After doing them yesterday, I have sore quads today, but at least I know that my muscles will get stronger doing them. It’s a good kind of pain because it will have benefits in the future. He told me that he was going to leave it up to me when I come back for another appointment, and if I wanted to check back in every couple of weeks, I could, or if I wanted to try doing things on my own, he was fine with that, too. I told him I honestly was afraid to be on my own right now because it’s never gone well when I’ve tried it in the past, so I’m going back in two weeks. I think it’s wiser to do that to make sure I’m not hurting myself with the new increases in activity I’m trying.
Given all the new information, I thought I’d try working on an interval plan to get me running. Since I’ve been told not to do too much too fast, I’ve been using the None to Run plan, which is online for free. It’s a twelve week program that’s supposed to get you running 25 minutes straight, which will eventually get me to a 5k. I’m not going to be at the front of the pack of any race, but I just want to be able to do it. This program is slower than other interval running plans, which should make my PT happy enough, and I can repeat any weeks I need to until I don’t have pain when doing them. I did the first day of week 2 yesterday, which is a 5 minute warm-up, and then intervals of 1 minute of slow running and 2 minutes of walking until you get a total of 25 minutes. It was hard for me. I’m used to biking, which gets my heart rate up, but running is so much harder. Maybe once I build some muscle back up in my right leg, it will feel easier. I got sore part way through, but not enough to stop. I finished the intervals as laid out, and plan to try again tomorrow morning. I’m trying to give myself a day between runs and plan it for days I start later at work to maximize the chances of success.
I may not have an update for a couple of weeks, so as always, take care! If you have experience getting back to activity after an injury, let me know what kind of tips you have that worked well for you!
Life's A Ride 