Friday was my first Physical Therapy appointment after my doctor's official diagnosis of the mysterious "sore spot". As per doctor's orders, it consisted mostly of deep-tissue massage along the outside of my thigh and, as it turns out, back into the exterior portion of my thigh - the bicep femoris. The only thing I have to say is that it was a good 30 minutes of excrutiating pain followed by now 2 days of ridiculous soreness that makes it almost impossible to touch the outside of my thigh.
Yesterday morning when I woke up, it was so bad that I had to ice it, even though icing isn't always the right option for a tight muscle. It was just so frickin' sore, especially close down by my knee. Now, of course, the sore "spot" is no longer a "spot" but more like the entire side of my leg.
What also followed yesterday were twinges in my piriformis and sciatic nerve from the active stretches we did for my psoas, meaning that putting my foot on the floor was occasionally a cause for yelping like a puppy whose paw had just been stepped on.
My PT says that he thinks we could get further with the TFL and IT band if we could limber up the hip more. I still have some stiffness and pinching in my joint when bringing my leg across the center of my body, which is exactly the movement I need to do in order to stretch the exterior of my thigh. So, one problem is preventing the other from being resolved. I have some new stretches to focus on there, so we'll see what we can do.
He also wants me back on the foam roller, which is basically a long tube of foam which you lay on in one way or another to 'self massage' certain parts of your body by rolling back and forth on it. Doing this on the outside of my thigh has been so painful I just haven't been able to do it to myself and so I have been avoiding it. But going to PT 2x per month isn't getting my TFL and IT band the attention they need, so I need to buck-up and get back on the roller. He told me to set a timer to five minutes (which seems like forever) and just push through. It was way too sore to even attempt this yesterday but I might brave it today.
Right now it seems like 1 step forward and 2 steps back. After the last massage session the spot felt much better for several days, even to the point of barely feeling it at all. This time it is significantly worse.
But I was heartened a little bit yesterday by watching one of the Olympic volleyball stars on tv. She had a ton of kinisthetic (sp?) tape on her shoulder after an operation on her shoulder last November. The commentators talked about all the issues she's had recouping because of the scar tissue and the fact that she has been in pain almost constantly since her op. Given that this is an athlete in tip-top shape, someone who probably had one of the top surgeons in the country, the best doctors, and the most skilled physical therapists at her disposal, and still she's battling post-surgery issues, I started to feel just a little better.
2 comments:
I still get pain in my thing muscles if I walk too much. I figure it's just ongoing PT until it goes away, however long that takes.
Hopefully it starts improving soon. I had IT Band problems earlier this year and they were not fun at all, although admittedly, nothing even close to what you are going through.
All the best!
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