Today is Sunday, I ran this past Friday. Aside from a few trainer sessions--that's it and all I've done!
For whatever stupid reason, I hate going to see Dr M for injuries. Yeah, I know, that's what he's there for, he's getting paid, blah blah, etc. Yet I don't wan't to be the whiny maggot who comes through the door for every little creak and niggle. I don't want to act as if I need help with every little problem, or be the person for whom every pain is like the worst ever.
The knee continued to hurt to the point that it became a persistent worry for me. It seemed that I was always doing something to hurt it--rolling around in a wheeled chair, squatting, climbing stairs, turning on my heel, pushing the clutch, and even bending over (to avoid squatting!) with loose knees to pick something up. I knew it was really a problem when I readily compensated with my other leg, core, hip, whatever it took.
Some I did some researches on The Internets, that wonderful series of tubes and YouTubes to learn more about knee pain. Soon enough, after searching for medial patella knee pain, I found a few possibilities including patellofemoral pain (not sure of the spelling...) which can be caused my muscle imbalances, poorly supported shoes, and overly tight muscles. All of this sounded familiar to the line of thought I had in my recent post.
So what to do? I've been very diligent to keep it stretched, and in doing so found my left leg to be very tight. I've been watching my electrolytes and being mindful of not flexing my feet at night to avoid the cramps. I've been wearing my regular kicks instead of the Merrells. Since I don't know the source of my problem, I have been attacking at all angles. The down side of this is that if it recovers, I won't know what exactly I did. Same problem I had in creating the problem, as I changed a lot at once then too.
My anatomy research indicates that my patella is not tracking in the femoral grove like it should. A tight muscle or muscle imbalance can cause this, as the muscles need to act in coordination during knee flexion to keep it from tracking right or left. Between the tight crampy calf muscles and the tight hammies, I can see where there could be problems.
On Wednesday things were reaching threshold for me. Not that I couldn't tolerate the pain, rather I couldn't tolerate the immobility, the doubt, or the idea that I was causing more damage by continuing without treatment. Then that night I had a dream that I finally went to Dr M. Rich dropped me off to the building and I realized after he pulled away that we went to the wrong building! (This happened in reality, his office moved and I didn't know it, so we were late to an appt). I called Rich so he'd come back and I started wandering up long hallways trying to get out of the building. At one point I was on a small wheeled platform rolling around the hallways. I was terribly stressed about being late for my appt (this happened in reality, too).
When I woke up, kid you freakin' not my knee didn't hurt anymore. Seriously. And hasn't hurt much since!
WTH?! I dream about seeing my doctor and get fixed?
It also just so happened that my calf cramped badly overnight, a really painful one that kept me awake for awhile. Did that re-align things? Who knows?
So I woke up that morning feeling great! Using some knowledge from The YouTubes, I KT'd the joint and spent the rest of the day just fine.
The next morning I decided to risk it and join DH at the gym. He'd just renewed my Y membership on Wednesday, this would be my first trip there since before Redman. Two months ago!
I hopped on a treadmill overlooking the pool and started walking. Some tightness, a little pain that emanated from the patella connective tissue (so a different pain than before), but nothing to stop me. I decided to try running, and the best song for this situation came on: Josh Gracin's Nothing To Lose. (Why is it so many songs about girls remind me of running? Just replace the girl with a run and voila you've got yourself a song to run too?). A settled into a 6.0 setting at 1% incline, a 10m/m pace. I kept bumping the front of the treadmill, but I was hesitant to go any faster.
By now she's got me pretty tied upTied down, any way I chooseI've got nothin' to loseI started testing by focusing on what hurt, when in the stride, what if I changed my stride, what if I changed the contact time, on and on. I found that for the most part, I had only minor pain--a pain maybe best described as coming from connective tissues that have recently been thru a little hell and just had some residual hurts. No acute or focal pain like before. Am I healed? I could feel some discomfort from the ankle and had a few twinges in the hip, all likely compensation issues. Really, am I healed?
Now I'm in the fast lane going 98By now I know she can smooth operate meI know now she's no goody two shoesBut hey, I've got myself nothin' to lose
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