Well, as it turns out, I do need to walk around in circles. Or, more accurately, rectangles, in the Plymouth Fieldhouse. Because that's all the lower body exercise I'm allowed to do right now.
Yup, when I saw my PT on Wednesday he instituted Timeout/Setback/Restrictions Number, oh, I don't know...Three? Oh, well...I had a good run the past couple weeks, anyway. As I mentioned in my last post, CrossFit was going well, and skating was, well, improving...slowly, but still improving.
Unfortunately, what wasn't improving was my pain level. No, it's stayed pretty much the same for the past 3 months or so--anywhere from 1-4 on the ol' pain scale, depending on what I'm doing. Running, skating and driving are most likely to evoke a 4, while CrossFit and walking and sitting and general life are mostly in the 2-3 range. The recliner rates a 0-1. My PT has done dry needling the last three times I've seen him; I did have one day after the second session when I was able, for the first time since the injury, to walk without pain--but it only lasted a day. Other than that, nothing has really had an effect on the pain level.
Understandably, this has led to a lot of frustration. I'm frustrated that I'm in pain so much of the time (relatively minor though I guess it is, in the grand scheme of pain); my PT is frustrated that we can't figure out what's causing the pain and thus how to make it go away; my CrossFit coaches are frustrated that one day I'm PR'ing my squat clean and the next I'm refusing to do any of the lower body exercises that I've been doing sucessfully--if somewhat painfully--for the past month or two.
For the record, I know that this injury takes a long time to recover from--9 to 12 months until return to full sport performance level. Right now I'm skating one lap at a time at 55 seconds; I know it will be a long time before I work my way back to multiple laps in the low 40's, just as it will take a long time to work my way from my current back squat of 85 pounds to my previous PR of 150. And I'm OK with that, because I see progress in the right direction. I don't, however, see any progress--except for some progress in sitting somewhat comfortably--in the pain level, at least not since I made the jump to walking without a limp, which was about three and a half months ago. And from what I read on the "Hamstring Avulsion" forum (500 pages of riveting tales of people's injuries and recoveries), this is not normal. If you remember, back in December my surgeon said to expect my leg to hurt for "a long time" (wish I would have pinned him down on exactly what he meant by that). Maybe I need to talk to him again, because I guess I didn't expect this to mean absolutely no change in pain level in the two months since I talked to him.
The PT said he wants me to take a week completely off of any lower body stuff to see if that makes a difference--no running, rowing, lifting, skating...basically nothing fun. I don't expect to see any results from this inactivity; I didn't from the earlier restrictions he imposed, nor did I from my self-imposed five-day timeout a couple weeks ago...but we've got to start somewhere. Plus, other than skating and running, it's not like exercising seems to aggravate the pain; it's pretty much just always there, so I have a hard time believing that it's the exercise that's causing the pain to stick around. Maybe I've "done too much" (as all my non-exercising friends and, um, spouse continually warn me against), but I really feel like I've re-introduced athletic activities slowly and gradually, and I've followed what my PT has said. And besides, back in December my surgeon said there was no need to limit my activity. But, as I say, we've got to start somewhere, and it's only a week...
So I'm frustrated. And, of course, when I'm frustrated and can't work out, I want to eat. I'm still trying to lose the poundage I gained when I first hit the recliner, but I know myself well enough to know that I'm going to need to allow for an indulgence or two if I want to maintain my sanity...and I figure Monster, Diet Dew, and grain free Monster Cookies (with three types of chips in them, I can hardly call them Paleo) are better than eating an entire pizza. Not that I've done that before or anything...
My salvation...
So today, after several days of "upper body only" CrossFit, which is certainly better than nothing but which is not nearly enough exercise to keep me happy, I found myself, as I did twice yesterday (I was desperate) strapping on the vintage iPod and marching 'round and 'round the Plymouth Fieldhouse. And when, on my last lap, the iPod's "shuffle all" mode produced Soul Coughing's "Circles," I couldn't help laughing.
At least I still have my sense of humor.
Seriously, does anyone have any tales of their own injury that might be helpful? Any major muscle tears, muscle surgery, etc? How long did the pain last? How quickly did it change/improve? Does my story sound unusual (I'm 5.5 months post surgery right now), or am I just a whiner and I need to suck it up and shut up? All suggestions are appreciated!
No comments:
Post a Comment