Tag: orthopedics

One Final Push

On By LeraIn Cycling, Life, running, SurgeryLeave a comment

Had another follow up with the ortho clinic two days ago. I’ve had very minor improvement in my knee since the last injection, but I’m still getting pain with even walking still sometimes. I can walk farther most of the time before it starts bothering me, but I still have days where it just doesn’t like me to walk on it at all. After every activity that involves weight bearing, I have pain. I get pain after walking, after running, and even after standing twenty minutes to cook or greet people at the doors at church. Biking is almost normal, but I’ll still get pain after that if I ride longer than about 45 minutes, but shorter rides are okay 85% of the time.

All that said, I feel like I’m back to where I was before I injured myself further at the 5K race in November, but even before that I was still struggling with these same issues for 3 months. Now we’re at 7 months, and it’s not looking great that they will resolve without help. The doctor told me there’s still a chance that they can improve, but told me to look at it from the perspective of how much it’s limiting me from the activities I want to do. The truth is that it’s holding me back.

At my appointment, I had fully planned to discuss my surgical options, but I was so undecided about it. The doctor was really understanding about it and told me to take the next month and see if things improve, and during this next month, he told me (directly quoting him) to “beat the shit out of it as a field test”. He told me to increase my activities and see how it responds. Just based on how the weekend went, I think it was stupid of me to push surgery off another month, but I want to be sure I need it. I really don’t see things improving in the next month, but I’ll make suer I run consistently and keep doing my rehab exercises and see what happens.

Steroid Shot Round Two

On By LeraIn Cycling, Life, running, SurgeryLeave a comment

I had my ortho follow up yesterday. I did get some relief from the steroid injection into my knee joint last time. It gave me some off my range of motion back and helped with some of the pain, but it didn’t help with everything. I remain unable to bend my knee all the way, or straighten it all the way, so trying to do some of the stretches the doctor gave me hasn’t been going well. It’s still too painful to attempt a quad or hamstring stretch, but I’ve been able to do most of the strengthening ones pretty decently.

Given continuing symptoms at my appointment today, the doctor injected my distal IT band to see what that does for me. I’m still getting lateral and posterior pain, and walking still isn’t comfortable, but biking has been feeling a little better. I’m having less pain and stiffness after a ride as long as I keep it slow. Although any amount of pain is still too much, it’s at least a step in the right direction.

If this steroid injection doesn’t fix the problem and get me starting to run, I’ll be discussing surgery when I go back in 6 weeks. Hopefully it won’t come to that, but that’s the very last option. I’m not crazy about the idea of surgery when we don’t even know for sure what’s going on, but I’m pretty sure arthroscopy can aid in diagnosis, and they can fix the problem if they find something right at the same time, so I’m trying to be as positive as I can. The doctor mentioned possibly releasing tension on the IT band, but that’s assuming that’s the cause. The area where it hurts isn’t the same as where I had IT pain before; that was a little higher up on the knee and this is lower. He still doesn’t think it’s likely to be my meniscus even though it is torn since it’s on the medial side, which is the opposite side of my knee. I also have a Baker’s cyst that could be the cause. Basically, we’re both just crossing our fingers and hoping we can at least narrow down what’s going on. Unfortunately, it could be one or all of those things.

I felt pretty good when I woke up this morning (waaaay too early at 2:45 am thanks to insomnia being a side effect of the injection), so I took myself out for a walk at 6 am and managed to hit two miles. I was really slow, but only mildly sore while I walked without a noticeable difference in pain later on, so that’s a good sign. If I can get the pain while walking to disappear over the next two weeks, I’ll try slipping in a couple tenth mile intervals into a walk. I don’t want to rush back into trying to run and make it worse again, but I also need the information for when I go back for my follow up. If I still can’t run, I’ll let them cut me open and see if they can find the problem. I’m far too young for this to be the end of my running, so I’ll give it a try if I have to.

I’ll let you guys know how things continue to go as always!

Feeling Like Giving Up

On By LeraIn Cycling, Life, running1 Comment

I had my followup appointment today for my hip tendinitis and I’ve been crying off and on all day. I’m so beyond frustrated with my orthopedic doctor. It was a huge waste of my time (and money). Both of my hips have been bothering me, but in different places. On the left side it’s my gluteus medius tendon and on the right it’s my hip flexors. My left side has been feeling better; it’s not perfect, but the pain is less most days. My right side has been unchanged. I figured my doctor might want to discuss how some of the things I’ve been trying at physical therapy have been helping, especially the temporary shoe lift on my right foot. I was curious to see what he’d have to say about it and if he thinks it might be a solution to getting all of my trouble areas to heal up and leave me be.

He had no interest in any of that. He seemed almost offended that I went to my PT for help while I waited for my follow-up appointment and questioned how badly I was actually hurting. He told me I can’t just go to PT forever. I wouldn’t call a couple of sessions after 6 weeks working on a home program “forever”. All the doctor told me was that I should get a home program from my PT and work hard at it and everything would go away, never mind the fact that I’ve been doing that exact thing. I do my PT exercises every day, and on days where I’m hurting really badly, I stretch extra. He also told me to join a gym, lose weight, and work on diet and my pain would go away. I had to remind him that I’ve already lost a lot of weight (nearly 70 pounds), and that the hip issues started when I became a runner. The left side has been bothering me for 13 months and the right side for about 5 months. I really wanted to know what my doctor thought about my leg length discrepancy, and I didn’t even get a chance to ask him because he made me cry right there in his office. I agree with my PT about my leg length discrepancy being the cause, but it’s not a simple thing to just fix. Left untreated, my body develops poor compensatory patterns, which is why I have so many other areas that are hurting, which lately has been my right knee. Even treating a leg length discrepancy can cause problems while the body adjusts to its new mechanics if it’s treated too aggressively too quickly. I don’t know why my doctor didn’t want to talk about any of that stuff. Maybe he didn’t even read the chart. He sure didn’t seem to remember I was a runner until I told him I had a 5k this weekend I needed to get through, and his only response to that was that he was glad to hear it because it would help with the weight loss. It was at that point I started to cry. His last piece of brilliant advice was to tell me to call up the office and make an appointment if it didn’t get any better. I don’t understand how much “not better” it needs to be for him to care, but I’m certainly not going back.

I really don’t understand what happened today. My doctor was great about getting my left hip feeling better. Why is it different because it’s the right side that’s still bothering me? In the meantime, there’s not a lot I can do. My PT has been wonderful at helping me look for solutions, so I’m grateful I at least have someone who is interested in helping me. Him not being a physician limits that help, but it’s still been a blessing. He recommended I make the shoe modification permanent and told me of a place that should be able to do that for me in the next city over. The only reservation I have is if it removes the support aspect of my motion control shoes, and my PT wasn’t sure, so I’ll have a few questions I want to ask. In the meantime, the temporary ones are helping for now. I don’t know how much that will cost to modify my shoes, but if it will give me a chance at a pain-free life, I’ll try it if the price is reasonable enough. In the meantime, I’ll be taking a couple of weeks off from running after my 5k. I’ll also be taking a few weeks off from PT to work on a home strengthening program while I’m not running and see where that gets me.

I try incredibly hard to be positive and optimistic, but I’m struggling with that right now. I’ve been doing pretty well with my running considering all these injuries, and now with my asthma and the cold air for the winter season. It’s hard to see success on paper in my training journal and still feel like I’m somehow failing. The numbers may look good, but the way my body feels tells a different story.