Going to take an injury recovery break from karate

[pegkerr]

I'm going to talk with my instructor about this, but I've decided to take a total six week break, in hopes that it'll give my leg a chance to recover.

When I last spoke with him about this, I told him about the continuing problems with the knee, and he suggested I do just modified work: no kicks, no sparring, just form and self-defense. So I've been trying that for a week. The thing is, it's not quite that cut and dried. What about karate marching basics? There is a lot of knee bending in that. There is also a lot of knee bending in form--part of what we're working on is to get the stances deep enough. No kicks--does that include slow kicks, which is a large part of strength building?

I went to class on Tuesday. I sat out the fast paper kicks, but I did the slow kicks, using the bar to support me on the injured side, since my injured leg has no balance at all anymore.

Yesterday, my office happened to bring in a couple of massage therapists. This is something my law firm does a couple of times a year as a nice thing to do for their employees, and this week they're celebrating administrative associates day or whatever they're calling it these days. So I told the massage therapist about my knee and asked her to take a look at it. I like this woman very much; I always go to her when we have the therapists in. She works in a chiropractor's office and is extremely knowledgeable about anatomy.

Oh. My. God. She started to work the muscles around the knee, not even going very deep, and I just about levitated off the table, it hurt so bad. "Shin splint," she said, tracing one muscle that wraps from the knee and extends down the front of the leg. "Your muscle is separating from the tibia. And here," she pushed some trigger points in the hamstring and I yelped again. "Your muscles are inflamed, and they're pulling against the joint. I'd recommend stroking with a body brush until the skin pinks up, in several directions. That's to encourage blood circulation there, to help it heal."

So I did some research on shin splints. They are very slow-healing. So, as I said, I've decided to simply take a break from karate for six weeks, in the hopes that I can get the inflamation to die down and then will resume after that and see how it goes.

This sucks.

What I did yesterday to make the world a better place: Checked for toilet leaks by adding a couple drops of food coloring to the toilet tank.

Comments

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

Crap :( I hope that'll be enough for it to heal.

[tassie-gal.livejournal.com]

EEEP! Shin splints are EVIL...I swear the devil himself invented them....6 weeks of being very very gentle with yourself. No running etc, make sure your shoes have lots of padding to absorb impact when you walk. Biking might also be out for awhile.

[rachet.livejournal.com]

Oooooooh shin splints. I had those in high school from track and basketball. They're so painful and take AGES to heal completely. I am so sorry. :(

[alabastard.livejournal.com]

I'd had those, and rest IS the only thing that really works, else it will continue to be aggravated.

[naomikritzer]

I think this is a good idea. There's this macho attitude that's often encouraged in sports of pushing through the pain -- I think this would have been a useful idea for me to embrace as a teenager, when I was much more physically resilient than mentally tough. As I've gotten older, I've gotten much more mentally tough but much less physically resilient, and it's become much more important to me to listen to my body and NOT push myself too hard. Because pain is not in fact weakness leaving the body, it's your body telling you something is wrong.

Did you have an MRI done? What were the results?

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Yes, I did have the MRI done. No tear to the meniscus, which was good because that meant no surgery. The bad thing was that there isn't anything that clearly can be fixed. They said the ligament was NOT sprained, which was a surprise, because that's what the PT had thought it was, and because I'm still feeling pain on the side of my knee whenever I squat, although not as strongly as last November. Maybe it HAD been sprained but had healed up but the muscles are still inflamed. They said there was some pre-arthritis under the knee cap, and I couldn't figure out how that could be it, because, as I said, the pain's on the side of the knee rather than under the kneecap.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

I think that's a really good plan.

[irinaauthor.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I'm so sorry. I got shin splints once when I was a cheerleader in high school and they were agony. It's true, the best thing to do is encourage blood flow to the area and, in the meantime, take it easy.

[irinaauthor.livejournal.com]

Actually, do you know, this will sound weird but if you're looking too for shoes with maximum cushion while you heal, cheerleading sneakers are the best for that. The soles are insanely padded and cushy because of all the jumping. You'll feel like you're wearing slippers.

[schnoogle.livejournal.com]

Sorry to heard about your injury. :(

What does the food colouring thing do?

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

It's a way to check to see whether your toilet has a leak, which can waste a lot of water. If you put the food coloring in the tank and the color leaks into the bowl, you need to repair the toilet mechanism.