I feel you, Shakira [Also: almost 87 million views. Impressive.]. My hips don’t lie. My physical therapist saw right through their roundabout story. The story about how my hip hurts, my lower back hurts, and sometimes my heel is a little tingly.
The PT didn’t directly negate my primary care doc’s diagnosis of tendinitis, but early into her exam, she pointed out that my pelvis is misaligned. I’d had a hard time describing what was going on lately. Usually my descriptions involved something like: it feel like there’s lead in my right leg; my right ass cheek feels inflamed; when I drive, sometimes my right foot is tingly…that’s safe, right?
When I sit down or lay down, the right side of my pelvis seems to grind into the surface, and when I stand, my right heel seems to grind into the ground.
The PT did ultrasound treatment and massage on my SI joint, which was pretty painful. She thinks that’s where this is all stemming from. Then she adjusted my pelvis and the pain was magically gone. Sitting, laying, and standing all felt normal. It was amazing.
While it lasted.
This is going to take some work, but I’ve got a core and hip flexor strengthening regimen along with some stretches to ease tightness. I’ll go back in about two weeks, since I’m on vacation (all I ever wanted) next week. Not long after my appointment, it felt like my pelvis was out of alignment again. The strength exercises will help build stability so that I can correct the misalignment and feel like a normal person again.
The PT is optimistic that I’ll run again, although we didn’t venture into the realm of time frames yet. I’m glad that I went, and especially glad that the first thing out of her mouth wasn’t, “Let’s just shoot you up with steroids!”
Whew!
This is my fun new stretch. It feels so damn good. You know, after the tears.
IT Band stretch from Running Times.
The PT and I also discussed my running shoes. I knew I needed new ones, but our chat and examination was…revealing? Embarrassing? I’m going to go with embarrassing. I should have been paying better attention.
So here are my older pair of Mizuno Wave Inspires. They were my first pair of running store-fitted shoes, and I loved the hell out of them. They were retired to casual walks around the neighborhood. As you can see, I wore them down fairly evenly.
Love.
I loved those so much, I bought them again in another color. I loved the hell out of these, too, but I wasn’t very good at paying attention to the fact that I wasn’t wearing them evenly. And I was really good at ignoring some of the pain in my right hip, and thinking that if I foam rolled enough, I’d be OK. Wrong.
I hope it’s clear enough in the picture, but the left shoe was worn down more on the outside than the right. It actually tilts outward instead of sitting straight like the right shoe. My old pair didn’t do that…and it’s worth noting that I experienced no pain when I was running in that pair. The PT said it was clear that my left side was overcompensating for my right.
No love.
No love for these shoes any longer. I knew I needed new ones anyway, but they are officially the Shoes of Death now. I put them on for the PT appointment, and the pain got worse as I walked around in them. I have no idea how much of that was psychological, but any more pain or discomfort than I have anyway is too much. So…to the shoe graveyard they go.
Shoes of Death.
The good news from physical therapy? The PT doesn’t think I’ll have any problem moving from PT to the other PT. She also did a strength test of my legs, suspecting that my legs were weak. But ha! They are not! She told me that my legs are actually pretty strong.
It’s just the Jello Jiggler that sits on top of my legs that needs some work.
Racy Stacie: A training journey. 