Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Graston fun and continued frustration....

I’ve been going to see a chiropractor/sports med/graston guy for 3 weeks now. The latest fun is he has me stand on my toes on a step while he scrapes down my arch, the tendons on the sides of my ankles, and parts of my calf with a stainless steel tool. This is fairly painful, and leaves my lower leg a bit green/purplish in color. I’m actually seeing 2 different guys at the same clinic bc I can’t always get into one or the other. One is nice, the other is not so nice, and I’m reaching a frustration point with both of them as to when I will be cleared to run again. And by run, I don’t mean jogging 100 m on a track. I mentioned to the nice one last night, that I’m at a breaking point, and without some more insight into what they see as my progression back to running, I’m going to jump ship and just go it alone. I could run pain free on roads/tracks before I got put in the damn boot, so this slow progression back into something that causes no pain doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. His response was that the partial tears could lead to complete tears which would be a career ending injury and that I can’t rush it, blah blah blah. It might as well be a career ending injury at the pace they want me to get back to running. At this rate I’ll be back to a 100 miler when I’m 70. Wasn’t the 6 weeks in the boot supposed to give the tendons time to heal?


I did jog 2 miles slowly on the treadmill last week, which I later got reprimanded for doing, by the grumpy one. He gives very unclear instructions and won’t repeat anything. So when he said I could go onto a track and run the straights for 2 miles, I took it as meaning he didn’t want me to run the curves bc of the increased strain on my tendon while turning. And at some point he mentioned the word ‘treadmill’ so I took it to mean I could try out a short run on the treadmill. I don’t know where to find a track, and no google search has given me any clue as to where I might find one that is not a pain in the ass to get to. So, I opted for the option that was easy, and ran an easy 20 minutes on the treadmill. It wasn’t fun (bc running slowly on a treadmill in a crowded gym never is), and didn’t cause any pain, but got a grumpy reaction from the doctor and I saw him write in his notes, “patient did not follow doctor’s instructions.” It’s to the point, where I’m about to give up on them, and just jump back into it. I’m not training to get back to a 5k, and their conservative approach with no insight into their ‘plan’ for me is not helping. 


I’ve got a new year’s eve appointment with the grumpy one…I’ll give them another week to convince me that this is going somewhere, and then Miwok training starts in earnest.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Boot-free, but no running in sight....

Well, since the last time I posted I've packed up a Penske, driven 5 days cross country with Dad, found an apartment, started a new job, unloaded the truck, unpacked (sort of) and have been in Portland for about a month now.  The orthopedist I saw in VA right before departing put me in an immobilization boot, which I finally transitioned out of last week.  I've seen 3 different graston guys out here, along with an acupuncturist.  I've settled on 2 of the graston guys (both at the same practice) and am now getting treatments twice a week.  I can bike, swim, elliptical, etc, but no running allowed.  So far, lots of late night swims at the gym and early morning spin classes. I got back out on my road bike for the first time last weekend, so look forward to ramping that up a bit.  I'm going to see a naturopath after Christmas to discuss some type of injection that might help.  I walked home last night for the first time and it didn't feel bad, although it's hard to say bc I saw the doc this a.m. and now am bruised and swollen (from him, not the walk).

I mentioned to the doc that I had made it through the Miwok lottery, so have a 100K to shoot for on May 1.  He told his colleague (who had already advised against this), who came in and scolded me and reminded me that this was probably not a good idea.  We'll see...I plan to run on May 1, and hope to be back running in the next couple of weeks. 

The guys I'm seeing said that immobilization was not a good thing, and that a much more active therapy would have been appropriate.  Not what I wanted to hear 5 weeks into wearing the boot.  Anyhow, they are doing graston, massage, laser, some electro therapy and I have exercises to do twice a day.  I've got tears in both the posterial tibial tendon and apparently the one on the outside (peroneal), too, per the MRI results.  So, I need to really work on balance/stabilization/strength in this area before they'll let me run, so as to prevent it from happening again.

I ran to catch the bus today, just to spite them (well, mainly bc I was already late for work), but for the most part am following doctors orders and hoping to get back out there soon....  Looking forward to a long ride tomorrow in the hills around Portland.