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!
Tag: Cycling
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.
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!
A Spark of Hope
It’s been a couple of weeks since I started ASTYM, and it really seems to be helping. My pain at work is unchanged, but at least it doesn’t hurt as much to bike as it did before. I think work is the single biggest thing holding back my recovery, to the point where I’m going to have to start looking for a less strenuous job. Every time I start to feel better on my days off, the pain always comes back the next time I work. I can’t handle that many hours on my feet without breaks anymore. I’m so tired of living in pain every day and limping around the house when I get home.
For the first time in a long time, I feel like things are looking up. I started working on some new exercises at physical therapy which should help me to run and jump again someday. It’s amazing how hard it is to jump! My left leg does all the work, but I’m hoping the right one will step in eventually and remember how to do it. I think it probably needs a little more strength first, but I’ve been diligently doing everything at home. I’m probably one of the few people who actually likes to do the home program based on what I’ve heard other people say. I like putting on some music really loud (usually country or jpop) and working on fixing my body. It’s a half hour of my time well spent every day. On my days off work, I’ll do the program a second time before bed. If it will get me walking normally again, then running, then playing tennis, how could I not enjoy doing my homework? I’ve dealt with this injury for over two years, and while I had hoped recovering from surgery would be a little faster than it’s been, at least I’m feeling like I’m making some progress again.
My other concern as of late is that I think I found out what’s been wrong with the outside of my right ankle: sinus tarsi syndrome. I have to discuss it with a doctor, but all the symptoms match: pain on the outside of the ankle, swelling, trouble walking on uneven surfaces, degenerative changes at the subtalar joint and fluid collection (evidenced on my MRI from last summer), pain turning my foot inward… I’m not dumb enough to diagnose myself on the internet, but reputable sources say it’s often misdiagnosed, so it’s worth asking about so I can get started treating it if I do have it.. It also can weaken the Achilles tendon, which might account for some of my trouble healing. Here’s a link to the site I found with extensive information about it: Physiopedia: Sinus Tarsi Syndrome. It’d be nice to know for sure what the problem is because it’s holding me back as much as my Achilles tendon is, if not more.
Well, that’s all I have for tonight. I don’t have physical therapy this coming week because my therapist is out of the office and the other one doesn’t do ASTYM, but I’ll be picking back up again on the 29 of this month. Until next time, stay well!
A Wild Ride
This past week has been a roller coaster of emotion. I had my follow-up appointment with my surgeon yesterday, and I really don’t know what to think. I told him I was concerned how it was healing, and he said the same things he said last time: that this kind of recovery takes up to a whole year to be 100% better and to just be patient. He didn’t seem concerned about it at all, which I know I should take for a good sign, but that would be so much easier to do if I didn’t feel like my body was falling apart. I called my physical therapist after the appointment to discuss the appointment like he asked me to do, and he agreed to let me try a full course of ASTYM, which is 6-10 treatments, so I’ll be doing that until mid-August. I finally feel like I might have some hope back to reach my goals, which is a feeling I haven’t had in about two months. I had one of my best cycling weeks last week, which is still less than half of what I should be able to do, but it was about 20 miles more than the week before. I actually went out 5 days last week instead of just 3, and that was after only one ASYTM session! I’m hoping that with a full course of it, I can be back out a lot more. If I can break 100 miles on a work week, I’ll be thrilled, but right now I’d be happy with 75. I’d be really excited to get tennis back this year, but I know better than to push too hard too soon.
I want to take a minute to recognize my amazing physical therapy clinic. I’m not naming them to protect my privacy here, but I really would be lost without them. They’ve been so wonderful to work with, and they’re cutting me a special break to help get me back to where I need to be. I didn’t expect any special treatment, but I’m so much more grateful than I can ever express in words. Just having the chance to try something else means so much to me, because I’m not giving up until I can say I’ve tried everything.
Discouraged
Maybe one day I’ll have something positive to post on here, but that day is not today. As you all know, I was anxiously awaiting my return to physical therapy. It did not go well, however. I had high hopes at the beginning when my therapist was discussing things with me and then he tried something new called ASTYM on the scar over my Achilles tendon. It was painful, but now that it’s calmed down, I think it really helped. The bad thing is, though, that I’m apparently not doing any more sessions. He told me that he didn’t know what else to do for me because I should be farther along in my recovery by now. He wants me to talk to him after I see my doctor next week and tell him what the doctor says, and that if the doctor had any suggestions then he would try them.
I feel like my therapist is giving up on me. Whether that’s true or not, I have no way of knowing, of course, but that’s what it feels like. I don’t know why he did the ASTYM for the first time today if he wasn’t planning for me to come back. If I’m not where I should be, then I want him to help me get there. I just don’t see things getting better working at home after how the past month of that went. It’s not enough. At least when I was regularly attending physical therapy sessions, I felt like I was making progress. I don’t feel like I got anywhere working alone. Just because I can do some stretches, squats, and lunges at home, doesn’t mean everything is going fine. I wanted to go back to that clinic because things went well when I had therapy there before, but now I just don’t understand what’s happening. I just want help getting back to normal function. Even just one guided session every week would be fine with me where my therapist could keep working on my scar tissue and give me more challenging things to do. Most importantly, I need help preventing some of the new issues I’ve had from getting worse. I’m tired of the hip pain, and afraid of what’s going to happen to my left Achilles tendon if I can’t get the right side in shape.
One day I might look back at this difficulty as just a small bump in the road, but right now it might as well be a huge wall. I was crying as soon as I got in the car after my appointment today, and spent most of the morning tearing up every time I thought of it. All of the goals I set for my recovery are slipping farther and farther away and seem so out of reach right now. I’m not signing up for any bike events when I can only ride a third of the distance I would need to (and that’s on a good day). I wanted to run a 5k by the end of summer, but honestly I’d be happy with a mile, or even 100 feet at this point. And tennis… I miss tennis so much, but how can I play tennis if I can’t run? I also planned to sign up for martial arts (probably aikido) this fall/winter, but I can’t do that if I can’t get my foot moving right or I’d just injure it more. I need to get back to what I enjoy, and I need the ability to do whatever activities I want to do.
All I can do right now is just wait for my appointment with my surgeon on Monday and report back to my physical therapist and cross my fingers that he’ll try something new. I really don’t want to go to a different clinic, but it might come down to that. I’m not living the next 50 years of my life feeling the way I feel now. I refuse to accept that this is the best I can hope for. Just because I seem to have hit a plateau doesn’t mean it won’t get better. I need someone fighting in my corner.
Random Thoughts
I don’t have any real reason to be writing today other than just wanting to get some thoughts out of my head. I’ve been feeling kind of “blah” lately; there’s no one reason, but things just kind of add up after a while.
My recovery is moving along, albeit more slowly than I was hoping. I’m grateful that I’m at least making some progress, but I’m really frustrated at the same time. Physical therapy has been going fine, but I feel like I need to be challenged more. I finally got something new to work on yesterday after a couple of weeks of doing the same things every session. He seems to be trying to get me ready to just do stuff alone at home, and as thrilled as I would be for that to happen, I’m not ready for it. He told me that I’m back to daily activities because I worked one week full time, but just because I did it, doesn’t mean it went well or that I wasn’t in excruciating pain every day. I can’t just call off work because I’m in pain, and especially when my boss is out of town like he has been. Simple things are still so hard. I can’t walk without a limp because I can’t push off on my right foot and because of the pain, and I can’t go up and down the stairs easily for the same reason. I have no strength in my right lower leg, and it hurts even if I walk too fast or bend my foot too far. I’m even getting pain when I’m riding my bike, and that never even happened before my surgery. I can’t even begin to think about running or playing tennis when the second I step out of bed, I hurt. So like I said, I’d be thrilled to be at the point of being done with therapy, but I don’t feel like I’m there if I can’t even walk properly. I already feel like my doctor isn’t really listening to me, and for the first time, I felt like my physical therapist wasn’t either. I don’t mind committing the time or money to physical therapy as long as I’m still getting benefits from it. I don’t want to be abandoned part way through my recovery just because I can do some exercises at home. I need to be challenged every week so I can get better faster. I’m still so stiff that I can’t even feel a stretch in my calf muscles because all the pain and swelling and stiffness at the heel keep me from being able to get the stretch up the rest of my leg.
It’s not just the recovery that is making me feel the way I have been. I just thought things would different than they are now. I lost almost 70 pounds, and I’m still overweight, but things were supposed to get easier afterward. Instead I’ve dealt with my Achilles tendinosis for about two years. Sometimes I feel like I shouldn’t have even bothered, but then I wouldn’t have discovered my love of biking. I’ve also been trying to find a new job, one that pays more and is more physically easy on my body, but I haven’t had any luck yet. And if all that wasn’t enough, I’ve just felt really lonely. I don’t mind doing things alone, but sometimes it would be nice to be able to do things with some friends. There’s only one person who regularly makes time for us to hang out together, and I’m so grateful to at least have her. Most of my other friends barely respond to a text or IM, and when they do it’s like playing twenty questions to carry on a conversation. I feel like everyone’s moving on with their lives and I’m stuck where I am. I was always told how much potential I had because I made high grades and worked hard, but that’s sometimes not enough after school. I don’t need a prestigious job or a lot of money, but I do want to do something I enjoy. I’m good at my current job, but it’s not the least bit fulfilling and I’m tired of having worked 99% of weekends and holidays for the last five years. I’m just craving some changes, I suppose.
I didn’t mean for this to turn into complaining, but I’m just a normal person. I’m not perfect, and I don’t try to pretend to be. I know I’m not the only one that feels this way, and it will go away eventually. Just being able to get these thoughts out of my head is already helping. I know almost no one reads this blog, and that’s okay. It’s here to be of help to anyone who might come across it and for me to remember everything about my surgery and recovery experience, and maybe even beyond. So, until next time, take care!
First Week of Freedom
It’s been a week since I’ve gained some small freedoms, and it’s been going pretty well overall–not perfect by any means, but not too bad. I still have quite a bit of difficulty with going up and down the stairs and a little bit of difficulty with walking. I just don’t have the strength or balance yet to move normally, and I still get pain with those activities.
As far ask biking goes, I can do that mostly pain free. I’ve kept the resistance easier than I usually would, but yesterday I allowed myself to do a sprint at the end of my ride just to see how it would go. I got to 17 mph, which isn’t the best I’ve done, but it felt great flying down the road at that speed with the wind rushing past me. People who were outside last night turned to look at me. No, I’m not narcissistic; I know they just looked because that’s what people do when they see someone outside.
In terms of work, that’s still very challenging. I’m working an extra day next week–four days instead of three. I’m nervous about it, not because of the number, but because one of them is nine hours. I’ve been working 6.5 hours since I got back, so it’s not a huge increase, but I struggle with the shorter shifts. I know I’m going to have a hard time with the longer one. It’s still too hard physically. I’ll see how it goes, but I’m going to have to tell my boss he needs to let me work shorter days for a while yet. He didn’t ask me if I was ready. I probably would have told him no, but I’m not going to complain to him after he’s inconvenienced himself to accommodate me. As long as he doesn’t suddenly decide to schedule me 40 hours without checking first, I’ll try to deal with it. I can’t work without the boot yet. When it’s comfortable to do so, then I’ll go back up to full time. I’ve also been considering the possibility that I’ll need a less physically demanding job in the future. I can’t risk re-injuring myself. However, until physical therapy is done, I can’t go anywhere. I need the insurance coverage to pay for the visits and the followups with the surgeon.
Speaking of physical therapy, I started working on some new exercises this week now that I don’t have to keep it still all the time. My usual therapist has been out of the office this week, so Monday I worked with the assistant I’ve seen a few times before. She’s nice and I feel like she does a good job. She had me working on pushing off with my toes so walking will become easier. Today, though, I worked with a therapist that floats to different clinics when they need her. She was a nice person, but not the therapist for me. She was too gentle with the manual therapy. I didn’t feel like I got any real benefit out of it. When my usual therapist or the assistant does it, I can move more easily afterward, but today it felt like it wasn’t even done even though she worked on it for ten minutes. The float therapist had me working on some of the new stuff I started this week, but made me feel bad for holding on to the bar to keep my balance while I was trying to stand on one leg. I did the best I could without holding on, but it was too difficult. Then, when I was leaving, she told me I should really be working more on my limp because it’s a bad habit to have. I felt so confused, because isn’t it her job to help me learn how to move my muscles and joints the right way again? The more pain and stiffness I have, the more I limp. I left in more pain today than when I started. I was just thrilled to be moving as well as I was. I’m certainly limping less than I was last week right after the boot came off. My session ended ten minutes early today; if she was that concerned about my limp, she should have helped me with it a little. There was only one other patient in there at the time. I just didn’t appreciate the way it was brought up as I was leaving. I’m glad next week I can work with my usual therapist. Today felt like a waste of time to me, and usually I feel like I’ve at least made a little progress.
Back in the Saddle
It’s been just a few days shy of four months since surgery. It seems so unreal! I had another post-op followup today and I’m now allowed to transition into regular shoes! I have to wear a special padded lift inside the right shoe for quite a while, but it’s so nice to not have to wear the walking boot all the time. With the amount of difficulty I’ve been having with work, the surgeon told me it would be wise to use the boot at work for extra support if needed until I recover more strength and range of motion. I’ll be bringing it along to each shift just in case I need it; I can already tell it’ll probably still be a few weeks until I can really get rid of it for good. I just keep telling myself it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and I have to pace myself.
It’s amazing the difference a day can bring. I was feeling really low a few days ago, exhausted with being dependent on people for rides and not being able to do the things I wanted to do. I feel so useless at work because I’m only there 19-ish hours a week right now. I’ve been trying to push myself as much as I safely can because I don’t want to risk losing my job, but the amount that I can do is still not up to what I consider full standard. I’ve been praying for the strength to make it through the challenging days.
Then today happened: I GET TO RIDE MY BIKE AGAIN! I stupidly forgot to ask at my appointment this morning, so I had to call and get permission. I waited four long hours for the phone to ring with an answer to the message I left, and it finally did at 1:50 p.m. By 2, I was changed into my gear and pumping up the bike tires. The ride went pretty well, but my speed was awful because I have to ride in a low resistance gear. I still managed to ride 7.27 glorious miles in 41 minutes. It was cold and damp out, but there were a few moments of sun along the way. It felt amazing, like I was finally living again! I didn’t have any pain while I was riding, and I probably could have gone farther if I wasn’t sick with a slight cold. I’m trying not to do too much too soon, and I’ll ask at physical therapy how to judge what’s too much so I don’t hinder my progress.
Now if only the pain I feel with extended weight bearing at work would lessen, I’d feel a whole lot more confident about everything. I’m still ecstatic to be gaining some new freedoms, though. Things will fall into place eventually, and I’ll be ready when they do!
Two Weeks Strong
As my second week of therapy draws to an end, it’s hard to believe the difference in my daily life in just two weeks. No longer being reliant on crutches in most situations is wonderful. I haven’t been using them at home, but I was using them when I went out shopping because I wasn’t used to having my weight on my foot for more than a few minutes. Finally on Tuesday, I was able to go grocery shopping without the help of crutches. It was hard! I was out for about an hour and a half, but I started to get sore after just twenty minutes. My walking boot can be filled with air in the heel area to help splint things a bit, so that helped, as did leaning on the shopping cart. It was challenging, but I made it. It was so much easier to shop with two free hands and push a cart without also having to steer my scooter. So many things are simpler now that I don’t have to treat my foot like it’s glass all the time–cleaning, cooking, and laundry, to name a few. My goals for the next several weeks are driving and showering without using a stool. I can’t drive until my surgical foot can bear 100% of my weight, so it’s still going to be another two weeks or so as an estimate.
One negative effect of my new found freedom is that my whole lower body is sore. I wrote before about how my legs are uneven with the boot on, and while it didn’t bother me too much at first, my body is rebelling now. My left hip, my lower back, and my right knee are sore. If I could get a good stretch or crack the joints, I know it would feel so much better, but I can’t seem to get any lasting relief. I think once the first lift can be removed from my boot next week, it will help things a lot because it will let my legs be more even again.
Today’s session seemed a little more aggressive as far as manual therapy was concerned. It was painful, but I had less stiffness afterward. I’m getting bruised up from the “massages”, but they’re so beneficial. I think the therapist was trying to make sure I left in the best possible shape I could today since I’ll be away from therapy for four weeks. I wrote before that my insurance company is stingy with its rehab benefits, so we’re making use of most of them once the boot is gone. I can do a lot of the stretching and range of motion exercises at home, so it makes sense to do it that way. He told me not to hesitate to call or stop in if something didn’t feel right or if I had questions in the meantime, so at least I’ll still have some support if I need it. He told me again this morning not to overdo things. I still think he doesn’t quite trust me 😉 My session this morning overlapped with my neighbor’s session, so we were chatting, and I think my therapist was a little taken aback when I said I rode 20-30 miles a day, or about 130 miles a week last year. I guess that number sounds high to people who aren’t bike people, but most days I just rode an hour and a half to two hours and however far I got was however far I got. I usually get in the zone when I’m riding and don’t even notice time pass. I just ride until I can’t go any farther. I’ll let my amazing new tea mug sum things up for me below:
I’m looking forward to the next phase in my recovery, and I’m starting to get antsy. At least the weather isn’t that great right now, so I’m not missing much in terms of outdoor activities, but a month from now, I’m going to want to be out there trying my best again! I might be cleared to start cycling again in 4-6 more weeks, so here’s hoping that will happen sooner rather than later!
Life's A Ride 