Tag: injuries

Quick Check-in March 2021

On By LeraIn Life, runningLeave a comment

Forgive me for the lack of updates lately, but there hasn’t been too much to tell. We got hammered with a ton of snow in February, which put a damper on being active as much as I would have liked. All things considered with my history of injuries, it probably didn’t hurt to be forced to take things easy. I only got out to run 3 times last month, and I biked 5 times, so it wasn’t exactly the kind of month where I moved closer to any goals.

I’m ready for winter to be over and the warm weather to come back. It’s been so hard on my asthma to run in the winter. I’ve managed to avoid any major issues, but there have been days where I wondered if I needed extra treatment. Luckily I’ve had a lifetime of managing asthma exacerbations and know that I can safely take an extra dose of my inhaler if need be. That works well for me the vast majority of the time. I haven’t had a bad exacerbation in about a year, which (surprise) was brought on by running in the cold. Unfortunately I don’t have a choice about that. I don’t have a gym membership, nor do I have equipment at home, so the outdoors is my gym. It’s far better than sitting around for 4 months and not doing anything. I honestly don’t know if I could be a treadmill runner. I guess I just like being outside too much.

Injury-wise, I don’t know how I’m doing. My hip flexors are still bothering me enough that I worry about them, but not so much that they’re holding me back. I won’t really know how bad they are until I run consistently again. I’m going to keep it easy in March and slowly increase my distance from 2 miles to 3. Something else that’s been bothering me off and on is my knee. I’m not really sure what’s wrong with it, but it’s been clicking and has been mildly sore at times since November. It isn’t limiting what I can do, but I worry that I’m causing damage. I asked my doctor about it just to be sure I was safe to keep running, and he thinks it might be my kneecap not tracking correctly, or a meniscus issue. We aren’t doing anything about it unless it gets worse, so for now I’m diligently keeping detailed notes in my training journal like always. It’s likely related to my leg length discrepancy, and I was hoping Frankenshoe would do a little more for me than it has been. It’s been helping with some of the pain, especially on my left hip and SI joint, but I thought that by now I’d be seeing more improvement with the other trouble spots. I’ve been using it since the end of December, but it may just take more time. One thing I wish I knew is why my leg length discrepancy wasn’t treated as a child. A one inch difference is a lot. I asked my parents about it and they said the specialist they took me to every six months only ever wanted to do x-rays to keep an eye on it. I was planning to ask the orthopedist I was seeing, but he got all judgmental and somehow forgot I was a runner despite being there for a running injury (https:/lifesaride.home.blog/2020/11/16/feeling-like-giving-up/). Eventually I’ll ask my primary care doctor for a referral to someone, but for now I’ll let him manage anything I may need. Obviously I’m not going back to the orthopedist I was seeing after how he treated me, and the sports medicine appointment I had in the summer was a joke (all talking and no actual poking and prodding my injuries, wanting me to do PT which I had already been trying, and come back in 6 weeks—yeah, didn’t see the point in going back there either).

Anyway, I kind of started ranting a little, but I can’t help it. I’m sure one day all of these struggles will fade into the background. Until then, I’ll just keep trying to do my best like I always do!

Pre-race Update

On By LeraIn Life, runningLeave a comment

It’s been a week and a half since I’ve been trying those temporary lifts in my right shoe that my physical therapist made me. Overall, I think they’ve been helping. I still have a lot of pain, but it feels easier to walk. I’ve had a leg length discrepancy my whole life, so I’ve always been used to how it feels. Using a heel lift again back in March helped, but it didn’t fully correct it. The new shoe inserts put me up to where my legs feel very close to even. I didn’t even know how good it could feel to walk. The hope is still that it will eventually help my other injuries go away and stay away by removing the extra strain on my muscles and tendons. My only concern is that my right knee has been trying to bother me lately. It does sometimes, so I don’t know if it’s just one of its occasional flare-ups or if it’s because of the lifts. I mentioned it to my PT and he wasn’t too concerned, so I’m just keeping an eye on it for now.

My running has been going pretty well. I’m able to run 25 minutes straight through with no walk breaks now! I’ve never been able to do that much. I’m still very slow, around a 14 minute mile, but it’s a start. Another month or two and that will be improved. I’m hoping to be able to run 30 minutes by my last 2 runs before the 5k in 13 days, and then on race day i’ll be trying my hardest to run all of it straight through. I’m really glad I’m back in PT and working on loosening up my muscles and building some strength. I’ve only been going once a week and doing a lot of stuff at home, but I’m still finding it helpful. If I can get both of my SI joints moving the right way, that should also help. They’re both still stuck, but in different directions, because my body apparently can’t do anything normal xD

Trying Something New

On By LeraIn Life, runningLeave a comment

Last week I reached my limit with my ongoing injuries and pain and called up the physical therapy clinic. I spoke with my PT on the phone about what was going on, and he had me come in so he could do an assessment since it had been about 7 weeks since I was there last. He spent a lot of time looking at everything and started formulating a plan to treat my stuck SI joint and deal with my uneven legs, which he thinks may end up helping. He was careful to say it was his best guess, which I totally understand. I know it isn’t a certainty, but I’m grateful he’s willing to try. I went back a couple days later so we could get to work on treating the problems.

Friday when I was at PT, I was the only patient there because the other one had cancelled. My PT did another assessment and the other therapist that was there was fascinated. The difference between my left and right hip height is very drastic, and he found it really interesting (his exact words were, “WOW! No way!”). The two of them brainstormed together about what might help. Eventually after testing me with different heights under my right foot, my PT made me something temporary to try in my right shoe to make my legs and pelvis even. If my body responds well to it, I’ll have to get my right shoe built up to that height, and if my body doesn’t like it, it’s back to the drawing board. It’s too early to know for sure, but I had a little less pain running this morning. I occasionally have low pain running days, so I don’t know if it was the lifts or just a coincidence. I’m planning to run again Thursday before my appointment so I can at least have two runs worth of info to give my PT.

I’m hoping eventually I can do a lot more trail running. I discussed it at PT and at the moment it’s best not to do it very often because, as my PT put it, my “body would be a mess if I ran trails”. I don’t really mind running on the road because my body likes it more, but my soul likes the forest runs more. Being surrounded by nature on a run is incredibly refreshing.

I also did something new that was fun last week and volunteered for the local Zombie Run. I wanted to run it because there were people dressed like zombies hiding in the woods scaring the runners and it sounded like a lot of fun, but I didn’t want to push myself too much and make anything worse. It was fun seeing race day behind the scenes, though, even though it was freezing that evening. I still felt like I was able to participate in some of the fun. I got to run the registration table and check the runners and volunteer zombies in and out and make sure everyone signed a waiver. We also had 6 extra runners that signed up on race day, so I had to collect payments, too. I enjoyed getting to greet everyone and meet some new people in the process. The next time I’m not running a race that’s being held, I’ll volunteer again. It was a great experience!

Constant Struggles

On By LeraIn Cycling, Life, runningLeave a comment

I’ve been having a really hard time since the 5k. Somehow, despite everything I try and all the effort I put in to following the advice I’m given to the letter, I can’t catch a break. At my last physical therapy session before the race, I was told that after it was over, I should take a break from my workouts for two weeks and rest. I had already decreased my biking for weeks before the race so I wouldn’t work my trouble spots harder than they were already working, which made sense and I figured the sacrifice would be worth it. I was at least able to keep training and run my race. My PT wanted me to decrease my biking even more, which knocked me down to just 3 days a week of only 20-30 minutes and absolutely no running for the duration of the break. During that time, I missed running and was anxious to get back to training for the next 5k, but I really missed biking. I was riding 6-7 days a week before, and between 45-90 minutes each ride depending on the day. Last year I was able to easily log 15-20 miles a day, and for the last month it’s been 5-6 miles on average. Biking was how I erased my stress, and I am really having a hard time not being able to bike as much as I want.

The two week break felt like it lasted forever, but my pain steadily decreased during that time. My first run back felt amazing, and most importantly, there was no pain. I thought I was finally in the clear. My second run that week went well, too, but my third one was when I knew I was getting my hopes up too high too soon. All of the pain returned near the end of that first week back, which was last week. Fast forward to this week, and it’s still here. I ran twice already and am planning to run again tomorrow. I decided to follow the C25K (couch to 5k) program exactly as laid out unless I need to make modifications. Even though I was able to do more a few weeks ago in terms of endurance, I’m hoping that keeping it easy and steadily increasing my runs with a progressive plan will help keep the pain manageable enough for the next 6 weeks until the race.

So, basically I’m stuck at what to do. I absolutely don’t see the point in taking time off if it isn’t going to help. No, 2 weeks isn’t a long break, but the time before this I took 5 weeks, and the time before that, 16 weeks. What’s the point in taking a break if it doesn’t even provide lasting relief? I could take more time off, but it’s not guaranteed to even work, and I can’t afford to miss any runs leading up to the race. I’m only running 3 days a week, so it’s not like I’m overdoing it. I’m keeping my bike mileage down for now. But what else can I do? I’m doing everything my PT taught me how to do, and the unfortunate thing is that he’s now on medical leave for a while longer and he’s the one that actually knows my case, not to mention that all my PT benefits are used up for the year and having to do self-pay is already going to limit how much I can go because it isn’t cheap. It’s certainly not something I can do more than once a week. I was thinking of calling the clinic and asking if I can do an appointment to come up with a different home plan to try. The rest of the staff at that clinic is awesome and I wouldn’t mind working with any of them, but I have so much going on that I fear whoever it ends up being is going to be overwhelmed with everything I have going on.

As of now, the exhaustive list is:

  1. Left gluteus medius tendonitis and trochanteric bursitis
  2. Left TFL injury of some sort based on the stretches I can feel for that area
  3. Left proximal hamstring strain
  4. Left piriformis tightness, which leads to pain
  5. Left SI joint area pain when I run, and ocassionally with prolonged walking
  6. Right hip flexor tendonitis
  7. Right hamstring strain about two inches above my knee
  8. Right ankle mystery problem (still no official diagnosis after 2.5 years)

It’s really depressing to see everything in a list, but it is what it is. I started having most of these issues after my surgery, but I thought it was related to 10 weeks of crutches, and a few months of wearing the walking boot. I know for sure my body wasn’t moving ideally for a long time after my surgery, so it easily could have been that. I’ve had gluteus medius tendonitis before, about 11 years ago, but it went away pretty quickly and didn’t come back until 11 months ago.

My PT thinks a lot of it has to do with my ankle not letting me walk properly. I’m sure that has something to do with it, but I have another theory. Personally, I think it’s mostly related to me having a short right leg (anatomical origin as measured in special x-rays). I’ve been researching a lot, and the pain pattern I have is common for that issue. I have a 1 centimeter heel lift in my right shoe, but it’s not enough to fully level my pelvis. Running really aggravates everything, but I don’t know what else to do for it. I can’t use any higher of a lift in my shoe without my heel slipping out. There’s only one other nonsurgical option, and that’s getting my right shoe built to the correct height to even my legs out. I don’t know if it would help, but I’ll certainly be asking about it at my next follow-up with my specialist next month. The only problem with messing with the sole of the shoe is that I don’t know if it would render the motion control useless. I really need a motion control shoe to keep my ankle mostly happy when I run. Without it, I had a lot of ankle instability.

Anyway, forgive my ramblings. I guess I just can’t keep it bottled up anymore and needed to complain in a way that wouldn’t annoy anyone too much. I’m hoping I have time for a PT appointment next week to learn some new stretches and exercises I can try and see if that helps. I certainly have nothing to lose.

First 5k!

On By LeraIn Life, runningLeave a comment

I finally got to experience my first 5k race! Well, it wasn’t much of a race for me since I was super slow, but it’s a stepping stone and it was great motivation to keep trying. Really, my performance was pretty dismal, but I learned a lot.

The morning of the race was warm and clear. I pulled into the park about ten minutes after packet pickup started, and it wasn’t too crowded yet. It gave me some time to get some stretching in without being in anyone’s way. My nerves were on overdrive and I felt my anxiety intensify the closer to the start of the race it got. What helped calm it down some was seeing some people I knew. All together I knew 8 people there, 6 of whom I had met at some of the group runs, while the other two I knew outside of my running group. Having some familiar faces there was nice. I know I have nothing to compare it to, but it’s probably one of the best benefits of a small race. Fourty-four runners came out to race in total.

At the starting line, I stayed near the back of the pack since I knew I would be slow and I’d just get passed in the first 30 seconds anyway. At least I wouldn’t slow down the more serious runners and possibly cause them harm by being an obstacle to go around. When the official call to began was shouted, I was off. I started out way too fast; I felt my pace being set by all the faster people in front of me. After a minute or so, I settled into my usual sloth’s pace, determined not to wear myself out too early. A few days before, I had only just ran 2 miles (in intervals) for the first time, so I knew doing 3.1 would be a huge challenge for me. I did really well at the beginning and ran almost a mile without slowing to a walk. Considering I was only 75% of the way through my training plan, I was happy with that.

Unfortunately things didn’t stay that well for me. I had a hard time when I got a little ways into the woods. I hadn’t trained back there more than twice, so I wasn’t really prepared for more than a third of the race to be on uneven terrain. I wasn’t very far into the woods when the fast group of runners came by on their way back out of the woods, but at least half a dozen of them wished me good luck and told me to keep it up. I did ok back there until I was about halfway through. I was so exhausted and in so much pain from all of my nagging injuries that I walked about half the race. It got worse when I tripped over a tree root and fell, landing on my entire right side. I felt frustration well up inside me and felt tears start to form, but I pushed away all those feelings as quickly as I could and got back up and started running again.

When I finally made it out of the woods, I thought I just had a straight shot from the woods to the finish line, so I locked onto it and willed my body to keep going even though my burning tendons were screaming at me. I was so focused, or maybe just so tired, that I missed the last arrow and didn’t make the final turn. I only realized when I went through the start/finish arch backward that I had made a mistake. No one pointed it out to me, and there wasn’t another runner in front of me to follow because I was so slow. It was frustrating because it felt like I cheated by not completing the whole distance. I finished 40/44 at the race, with a time of 44 minutes, but really it should have been a few minutes more than that if I had actually ran the right direction.

Despite all the difficulty I had during the race, I had a good time. My endurance had built up enough that I should have been able to run the majority of that race by doing short 1 minute walks ocassionally, but my injuries had other ideas. Things were far from ideal, but it was a great feeling to be able to finish and celebrate everything I’ve had to overcome in the 21 months since my surgery. It’s been a harder journey to get to my first 5k than I could have predicted, but it’s been really rewarding. If I hadn’t been going through all these struggles, I probably never would have found out about my running group. It’s only because Dr. S brought it up at my last appointment with him and talked with me about my running struggles that I knew about it. I made sure to thank him when I saw him at the race. I don’t know if he really understands just how much he did for me by suggesting that group. I’ve run with them now more times that I can keep track of anymore, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know some new people. I was motivated to run before I joined that group, but now my motivation is even stronger. Even though it seems like I’m someone who never gives up, it’s been a huge struggle to keep training despite the pain. I’m already planning to do another 5k in November, but I’m taking two weeks off from running at the suggestion of my PT and getting right back into it. So until then, keep working toward whatever it is you’re working toward and attack it head on!

5K Training

On By LeraIn Cycling, Life, runningLeave a comment

Somehow yet another month has slipped by without an update. As predicted, I ended up back at physical therapy for all of my injuries. Better to work on them now before they stop me 100% from doing anything, which was the route I was headed down if I continued to ignore them. My PT knows my goal and how determined I am to meet it, so we’ve been aggressive at the stretching, and I started doing some strengthening this week. I’ve managed to keep running 3 days a week out of sheer stubbornness. Usually it hurts some, but no more than when I’m not running, so I’m going to keep at it. I absolutely refuse to stop again unless I’m told by a medical professional that I should. This is the third time in a year I’ve started trying to run, and I’m going to do everything I can to keep at it.

I decided to sign up for the 5k Dr. S told me about, which is hosted by the running group I joined. I can’t believe it’s only 12 days away. Considering I had to cancel the one in February due to injury, saying I’m looking forward to it is an understatement. I can’t even describe how ridiculously excited I am to finally be this close to that goal. I know I won’t be able to run the whole thing because I won’t be done with my training plan, but if I work in intervals, I should be able to run 80% of the time. I’ll push myself to do what I can, but I’m not going to stress out about it. I’ve also cut my cycling down for now to see if that helps the pain and stiffness in my hips and hamstrings. I think my every day bike habit is hindering my ability to rest well enough, so from now until the race, I’m only riding a few days a week and at a slower pace and less time than I’d prefer. It will hopefully be worth it come race day.

Lastly, I really love being part of a running group. I’ve mostly interacted with the members on Facebook, but I was able to make it to one group run so far, and it was awesome. Having some support out there makes a big difference, and there are a mix of beginners and non beginners, so there are people who understand the struggle to start running and people to look up to for future goals. Everyone has been amazing so far. I plan to do two more group runs this week, and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m learning a little about park runs and trail runs through them, and while I’ve only done one trail run so far, I loved it. Being in the woods surrounded by nature was refreshing. I just have to be careful I don’t roll an ankle on the uneven ground, which is why I haven’t been again yet. I do that enough on flat ground to the right ankle, which, as y’all know, already has problems. I don’t need another injury right before my race. I seem to be a magnet for them this past year, and enough is enough.

That’s all I have for now! I’ll let everyone know how my race goes, and maybe even post some photos!!

A Busy Past Month

On By LeraIn Cycling, Life, runningLeave a comment

Well, it’s been a heck of a month since I last wrote! As usual, this update will be a bit of a mixed bag of good and bad, but that’s just life for you. Sorry that this is so long! I really need to make it more of a habit to write more than once a month.

I finally got my bike back on July 9, after about 5 weeks at the repair shop. It was a long wait! It’s nice to have safe, functioning brakes again! I almost threw myself over the handlebars on my first ride because they were so responsive. However, I’m not a huge fan of the tire they put on the bike for me because it’s so heavy, but considering I had no other options, I’ll take what I can get. I can always switch it out at a later time. My speeds are slower than they used to be by 1 mph, which isn’t a huge difference, but it puts me back in the light cycling speed bracket 😦  Once the tread wears down a little, I might have more luck.

Next, the early success with the cortisone shot is fading. I still feel better than before, but I’m thinking when I go for my follow-up in two weeks, I’ll be back at physical therapy. I’m not even sure if it’s the same muscle (my left gluteus medius) that’s bothering me, or if it might be my TFL. Both are on the side of the hip where it hurts, and I did have tightness in my TFL when I was doing PT in the winter. I also am 99% sure I have a proximal hamstring injury on the same side, but I need it properly diagnosed by a doctor. Lastly, I’m also having trouble with my right hip flexors and some very slight occasional pain on the side. I’ve been stretching daily to try to relieve everything, but nothing is working to resolve the issues. I ordered a smaller diameter foam roller since the one I have is too big to get all my muscles well, so I’m hoping that might help. Despite all this, I have been able to run, but my pace is really suffering most days. It doesn’t hurt more while running or immediately after, which is the gauge I was given by PT to measure whether I should stop, so I’ve been trying my best to work through it.

I saw Dr. S for my elbow again yesterday, which is better than before thanks to therapy, but it still bothers me at work most days and lately every day when I ride my bike. My arm has also been hurting in the triceps area (which seems unusual for tennis elbow judging by my doctor’s puzzlement) and sometimes up to my shoulder and down through my middle finger. It’s not like that all the time, but it’s enough that it’s a bit worrisome. He gave me a referral to a sports medicine office, but warned me that they don’t like to take his patients if they aren’t athletes. As someone who is an active cyclist and who would love to play tennis again someday or sign up for martial arts, I’m hoping to have some luck. He also put my right ankle on the referral, so maybe someone might be able to figure out what’s wrong with it finally. I gave up on the ankle after that disastrous second opinion back in January, so I guess it’s time to try again.

Also while I was at my appointment yesterday, Dr. S talked with me a bit about running and what might help with some of these ongoing injuries. He suggested doing a video analysis of my running form, but I can’t find any good information from the place he suggested. He said they did it for him at the YMCA in a neighboring city, which does have a specialized physical therapy clinic, but it looks like I don’t have insurance coverage there. I’m not sure if the clinic I always go to would, but at the very least they might be able to just watch me run and make suggestions. I’ll look more into that after my orthopedics appointment, because, like I said, I have a feeling I’ll end up back at physical therapy.

Lastly, Dr. S told me about a local Couch to 5k running group at one of the parks close by, so I did some searching and found the group on Facebook. It will be nice to meet some other beginner runners in the area. I’m not doing that particular program, but I am doing a run/walk interval training program similar to that, so I asked to join the group and was accepted. They do group runs a few nights a week, which I will try to go to on the days I don’t have the afternoon shift, but in the meantime, I can hang out and meet some people online in the group. They’re hosting a program graduation 5k that benefits an area children’s hospital, but I don’t think I’ll be ready in 5.5 weeks. I might see where I am and maybe I can do the interval thing to finish, but I’ll have to consider how safe it might be with my nagging injuries.

June Letdowns

On By LeraIn Cycling, Life, runningLeave a comment

It’s been a heck of a month, especially since I don’t even have my bike right now. Three weeks ago, I was riding it and the front tire went flat. I had to walk it home about a mile and replace the tube. After I had it repaired, I rode just over a mile and it went flat again. I inspected the tire and saw nothing in it, which I expected since the flat was happening on the rim side. Last time that happened, it was the rim tape that needed to be replaced. I was tired of dealing with the issue, and the brakes needed to be repaired anyway, so I just took it to the local bike shop to let them deal with the issues. They told me it would be 2-3 weeks because they were really busy, which didn’t bother me all that much. Well, I called today (week 3), and they told me it would be a couple more weeks because they were waiting for a tire to come in, because thanks to COVID, there’s a shortage of them now. The guy told me the mechanic left me a message last week, but there’s no messages in my voicemail. I had him check my phone number just to be sure it was correct, and it was, so I don’t know what happened with that. All I know is that I’m going to lose my mind not having a bike for several more weeks, even though it may end up doing my body good.

As anyone who’s been reading this knows, I’ve been having trouble with my hip again, gluteus medius tendonitis to be exact. I took a month off from running and felt pretty good last week, so I tried a run, and I only got 8 minutes in before the pain was worse than it had been in a long time. I fought back tears walking home; I was beyond frustrated. Last week, I asked my past physical therapist about when a cortisone shot would be wise to consider, and he said, “Now.” I thought it over, and ended up scheduling an appointment with the doctor who treated it last time. I got really lucky and got an appointment for yesterday, his only opening until after the Fourth of July holiday. Someone must have cancelled right before I called. I’m so glad I didn’t have to wait three weeks to see him.

The appointment went well. I was 99% sure he was going to suggest a cortisone shot as the next course of treatment based on our discussion last time, and I was right. I know it has the potential to cause problems if done too frequently, but it was only my first one, so I wasn’t too worried about it. The shot was almost painless, which was a pleasant surprise because the size of the needle was huge. It was no worse than a normal injection. The doctor told me that if I didn’t have improvement in a week, he was going to give me a standing order for physical therapy. In the meantime, I’m working on my home program stretches. I wanted to ask my PT some questions today while I was doing occupational therapy for my elbow, but he wasn’t in the clinic this afternoon, so I have to wait until Thursday. I was curious about when it would be safe to start trying to run again, what other things I should be doing at home besides stretching, if adding strengthening to my program again would be helpful and when to do it, and what would happen if I did need to return to the clinic. I’m not sure that it will be necessary to return, but I want to know what kind of things we would be doing there since I can do 80% of it at home. I don’t want to waste his time. I’m getting ahead of myself, and I need to be patient and give the injection time to work. Today is my day off from work, so I won’t really know how it might hold up until later this week, and especially when I start running again. I was told at the doctor’s office that I could run in a few days, but that doesn’t seem safe to me. Maybe I’m just too afraid of hurting myself again, but I want to talk it over with my PT to know for sure. I really trust his judgment and he’s more familiar with my goals.

In other news, this week is going to my last week of occupational therapy. I have almost the same strength and flexibility in my right wrist now as I do in my left. The only deficit I have on my right side is that my strength with my arm extended is low because of the pain it causes at my elbow. At least I have one thing going right for me for a change. My shoulder is still sore at times, but I’m hoping that will eventually go away now that my elbow is improving.

I really hope July is a little more positive for me. I was going to run a 5k, but that’s unrealistic at the moment, so I’m going to a local lavender festival with a friend instead. It’s the same day as the race was supposed to be, so at least I still have something to look forward to. If I can get my bike back, I’ll be all set. I also started looking at a new 5k goal, and I think it won’t be until October, but it will be a Halloween themed race held at an orchard, and runners are allowed to dress up in a costume, so it’ll be fun to think about what to dress as. Given all that’s happening with my hip, I’m not sure trying to race any sooner than October would be wise. I’m going to be training slowly so I don’t have any other issues, fingers crossed!

Return to the Clinic

On By LeraIn LifeLeave a comment

This week I started occupational therapy for my tennis elbow. I didn’t know it was going to be classified as occupational therapy (I assumed it would be physical therapy), but the name doesn’t really make a difference in treatment. The way my clinic breaks it up is that OT is for hands, elbows, and shoulders, and PT is for everything else and occasionally shoulders. For my insurance benefits, that means my available sessions are 30 visits since it’s classified differently. I figured I was going to have to do self pay therapy again since I already used a bunch of PT visits early this year for my hip, but I got lucky and have a fresh count to go through.

It took some time to get the appointment set up. My doctor’s office was supposed to mail the referral form to the house (and it did finally arrive 9 days later–talk about snail mail). Apparently since my doctor is part of a certain local health system that has their own affiliated rehab clinics, they automatically got an electronic copy of the referral the same day of my appointment, which I didn’t realize was going to happen. That clinic called me a few hours after my appointment to ask if I was having severe pain, if my daily activities were limited, or if I was post-op, and they told me that because of the pandemic, those were the only conditions under which they were accepting patients currently. I was polite when I told them I was planning to go somewhere else, but I was also annoyed because my doctor wouldn’t have referred me for therapy if he didn’t think I’d benefit from it. It was a good thing I wasn’t interested in going to that clinic anyway.

I patiently awaited my mailed referral form all last week until Thursday afternoon. I was supposed to have received a call to set up a follow-up appointment for 3 months from now, and hadn’t yet all week, so I gave the office a call to set one up. While I was already on the phone, I asked the person I was speaking to if she could possibly fax the form to Athletico so I could call and get my evaluation scheduled for the following week. She said she would do it for me, and I left it at that. I called Athletico Friday morning last week to see if the form had arrived, and it still hadn’t, but they let me set up an appointment anyway (with no conditions attached, unlike the other place). The clinic called an hour later to say they finally got the referral and that I was good to go.

Tuesday was my first appointment, and it went well. I’m working with someone new with it being classified as OT (my PT was probably happy to get a break from me for this injury). She’s really nice and I think she’ll be great to work with over the next month or more. A lot of the appointment was an evaluation and discussing my symptoms and activities that I was having difficulty with. My elbow hurts every time I work, to brush my hair/teeth, to pick up a glass of water, and even to clasp my bra. Pretty much any movement that uses my hands to grasp hurts my elbow and forearm muscles, not to mention any twisting motions, like turning a doorknob. My OT took some strength measurements and showed me some exercises to work on at home, and that was the end of the first visit. Today I worked on some new things in the clinic after ultrasound and an ice massage. She also did some stuff to work the muscles around my shoulder because it’s been bothering me off and on since my elbow pain started.

All in all, it was a good first week of therapy. I’m a little sore from working the muscles extra, but it will be worth it in the end. I’m grateful that Athletico was able to see me in the clinic and that they didn’t have any of the stipulations the other place had. Just because my pain isn’t severe and I don’t have activity restrictions, doesn’t mean I don’t need help. I think 4 months of home treatment is plenty of time to give it before seeking additional help. I’ll never go anywhere else for physical/occupational therapy because I know they’re always there for me when I need them.