Tag: shoulder pain

Autumn Tidings

On By LeraIn Cycling, Life, runningLeave a comment

Forgive me for not updating this in four months! I can hardly believe how fast the time is flowing by these days. It’s been six months since changing jobs, and I don’t regret a single thing.

In terms of running, it’s been going okay. My knee is still an issue, and now my hip on the same side has been having some muscle stiffness on the outside. I took a few weeks off and restarted Couch to 5K this weekend. I had only been getting out once a week to run and focusing on cross training with speed walking and biking. Even biking still makes my knee hurt if I go too long. Despite everything, I’m grateful for at least being able to do some things. That said, I do want to do something with this knee of mine. It’s still far too much of a problem. The last run I did before taking a breaks was 2 miles, and I had major problems— all of them on my right leg. My knee was achy and swollen, my hip was mildly sore and quite stiff, my hamstrings, glutes, and calf felt strained, and even my ankle was trying to act up again, and that hasn’t been an issue in many months. I have no idea what to do. I’ve been really upset and angry about it. I’m sure if I see my doctor, he’ll want me to do PT for it again, but my copay will be much cheaper in the near year for that, so I’d rather wait a bit. I’m already doing PT for my shoulder right now (rotator cuff tendinitis), and that’s taking enough of my money.

Issues aside, I did run a 5k last month! It was the Halloween-themed run that I did last year, and it was even more enjoyable this year! I dressed as a female version of Mario and got some amazing compliments on my costume, and I got singled out by one of the photographers as I was walking by him because he wanted me to pose for a photo, so that was fun. I ran this race with two of my friends, and it was great. I actually didn’t do too badly, but I would love to finish faster one day. Again, I’m just grateful to be able to do it at all.

I also recently took a little bit of a bike trip about 30 miles south of me and rode on a trail that went through four different parks. It was ten miles out and ten miles back, and I stopped and chained my bike every so often and just wandered around. I packed a mini breakfast to eat halfway through; at the end of the path was a dam with a two story overlook. It sounds a little more grand than it was, but it was still really beautiful. It was on the chilly side that morning, so I didn’t run into a lot of people, which is the way I like it. I spent three hours just exploring all along that trail. I definitely want to make time to do something like that again at a new place.

All in all, things are going well. I can only hope it stays this wonderful through the end of the year!

May Flowers

On By LeraIn Cycling, Life, runningLeave a comment

Okay, so this really has nothing to do with actual flowers (although I did enjoy my tree’s cherry blossoms this year!), but I get bored titling everything with the month and the word ‘update’. I’m going to touch on my injury progress later, but I want to start with work first.

I started my new job a week ago, and I think it’s going to be soooo good for me. I love having a set schedule. It’s nice knowing that unless it’s my turn for a late day (which is shared and usually only an extra hour and a half max), I’ll be gone at a certain time. I’ve made plans to do a workout at a wooded metro park once a week, a run Saturday morning at a different park, and there are weekly glow rolls Saturday nights all summer long I want to make it out to once in a while. I love having a schedule that lets me plan events and have evenings and weekends off to see people much more easily. I’m already feeling a lot less lonely.

Next, my knee. It’s not 100%, but it feels so much better now that I’m not on my feet all day long without a break. The pain is minimal, but I do still have trouble with running. I’ve only been doing three sets of 5 minute run/ 2 minute walk when I go out, but I do get some pain at the beginning of my runs. At this point, it’s more the patellar tendon that’s giving me trouble, and a little bit is coming from my hamstrings on the same side. The sports medicine doctor I was seeing said I didn’t need to come back unless the pain got bad enough to want an injection, or unless my knee is swollen for two or more days despite rest. He said to just work on continuing to strengthen it and to try to be less fat (not how he said it, but that’s what it comes down to). He said there isn’t anything I can do with my knock knees, so I have that working against me forever, but strengthening should at least help downplay it a little. I still lack so much strength in my right leg that it feels like a never-ending battle. I still can’t do a single leg calf raise or single leg squat, which means I still can’t jump rope. However, I haven’t had very much trouble with biking unless I overdo it, so if I keep it reasonable, I have little pain afterward. Honestly, my biggest issue is stiffness, and I think a lot of that has to do with sitting all day at work now, so I need to start stretching more. I did find out Friday that the desks all convert to standing desks, so I’ll be going back and forth standing and sitting throughout the day.

Lastly, I’ve been having some shoulder troubles. I think it’s leftover from my last job, so I’m hoping it will eventually go away, but it’s been lingering for a good 6-8 weeks now, so I’m going to ask my physical therapist if he’ll look at it for me and at least give me an idea of what it is so I can try to work on it on my own until I can get in to see my doctor. I don’t think it’s major because it’s just sore enough doing certain things to be annoying, but given that I’m not stressing it at work anymore, it should start to go away soon. Fingers crossed.

I’ll do another update in a few weeks in regards to work, but I might post something else in the meantime if something is worthwhile so these don’t always end up so long.

Living at PT

On By LeraIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

In my last post, I mentioned that continuing physical therapy would be left up to my PT and I to discuss. Considering my desire to get back to running and considering I still need some help strengthening my muscles and loosening them up, along with my crazy work schedule that doesn’t leave me time to properly rest my affected injuries, we decided to continue on a week by week basis for now. I attended two sessions this week, and I’m honestly not sure what to think about my progress because a new issue started trying to pop up. I don’t have as much pain as I did when I started, but now my IT band is getting tight on the side where I already have the gluteus medius tendinitis and trochanteric bursitis. Given this new development, my PT decided that giving ASTYM a try would be worthwhile. Those of you who have been following along with this blog might remember that I had this done on my Achilles tendon this past summer and it’s what ultimately helped me recover from that surgery. I had my first ASTYM session for my hip/IT band today and I was really dreading it because I remember how much it hurt last time, but to my surprise it wasn’t as painful in that area as it was on my Achilles tendon. The worst part was having to wear shorts, which I hate because I hate my legs. I actually only had one pair from before I lost 70 pounds, and they’re huge on me, but they worked pretty well for ASTYM since my whole leg had to be exposed. I just changed back into my capris when it was time to work on the exercises so I didn’t end up losing my shorts on the floor xD

I left this out last time, but I started to get elbow pain last week that is very persistent and bothers me when I do pretty much anything. Doing some of my own research, I think it’s tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis). I have an appointment with my primary care doctor in a week and a half, so I’m hoping to get a definitive diagnosis so it can start feeling better. I feel like I’m living at my physical therapy clinic. Every time I feel like I can escape, something else happens. I hope I don’t have to attend sessions for my elbow, but I won’t know until I see my doctor. I’ve also been getting tingling in my fingers on both hands, which hurts enough to keep me up at night sometimes, so it’s just a matter of time before that needs treatment, too. Having a physical job is doing me no favors. I feel like the only way I might convince the powers that be to get us a real manager is if I show up with my arm in a sling, which may very well happen considering my shoulder on the same arm is also bothering me (not as much as the elbow, though). Maybe once there’s some outward sign that I can’t do 80% of the work alone, things might speed up. I’m tired of working overtime and being in pain. I want to be able to get back to running. I’m planning to start training again in 5 weeks, which would put my first 5k race the last week of April, or first week of May, but that’s assuming everything stays on track. With the way things have been lately, it’s hard to say. I’m going to work as hard as possible at PT; if I can get back to running, that’s the first step to getting back to tennis, which I really miss!