Injury

Back on November 14th I was 15 miles into an 18 miler when my knee started to hurt. Didn't think much of it until by the time I hit mile 18 I couldn't bend my knee. Weird thing is that Sunday it felt just fine. "Bendy" and all. Then I went to run Monday and at 1½ miles in it started "twinging." I took that week off and tried to run with my group again on Saturday. No luck. Got in 4 miles with the last mile being pretty painful. So, like any insane runner would do, I ran a half marathon the following day. In order to run that race I had to wear this:

It is NOT a running brace. By the time I hit mile 11 my leg was numb. I felt no pain until the next day when if you even brushed by my hammy or calf you needed to peel me off the ceiling. Again, like any insane runner would do, I continued to wear this brace and run since it allowed me to get over 1½ miles. Yes, I did see a doctor or two. The first gave me one treatment of Graston (active release technique), but without knowing EXACTLY what was wrong he couldn't do much more than give me exercises.

SO, I went and got this little diddy in hopes that my hammy and calf could be saved from certain death by the the big blue monster.


Turns out, it works pretty well. Still had an MRI done only to find that everything was A-OK except a slightly swollen IT band (illiotibial band). Off to the physical therapist. BLAH! We've been working on strengthening my stabilizing muscles because apparently "normal range" isn't good enough. The one thing I do like about PT is this:

Pretty freaky looking, huh? That oblong do-hickey in the middle is full of little wires and things and when you attach and do-dad that looks like a pedometer to it, it will send out little electronic pulses. On the inside of the pad is an anti-inflammatory that will continue to release into your body after the pulse machine has been removed. It's about 5 minutes with "the pulser" then you leave the pad on for another 2 hours. WORKS!!! My knee is barely swollen. Of course, if I'd stop running for a bit it would help, but I have a race in 8 days. I'll rest after that.