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From Twitter 09-07-2009
Sep. 8th, 2009 03:04 amTweets copied by twittinesis.com
Sep. 8th, 2009
Attempting to find my right butt cheek
Sep. 8th, 2009 07:41 pmI went back for another appointment with the Institute for Athletic Medicine, upon another referral from my doctor. At my annual physical at the beginning of August, my doctor and I discussed the ongoing confusion/uncertainty over What, Exactly Is Wrong With The Knee and What We Are Going To Do About It So I Can Go Back To Karate. She put in an order to send me back for physical therapy, this time requesting a PT who works with runners, in the hopes that the PT could teach me how to tape the knee and once I knew how to do that, I could resume training.
So I went in and gave the PT my history, explaining that no, running isn't what I really wanted. Fortunately, she is very familiar with karate, because her son took it for over a year. She's also obviously very experienced and put me through a series of tests, knowing exactly what she was looking for. Upon taking my history and looking over my records, she said that we could tape the knee, but really, once I started, I'd have to keep doing that indefinitely. Much better would be to try to pinpoint the underlying problem and address it, so that I could gradually regain full function.
I had, again, the irrational fear that the problem would not manifest itself. The ligament, if it ever was actually sprained (the original diagnosis last December), seems to be entirely healed; that was good news. But the arthritis in the knee, together with some muscular problems and tightness in the Achilles heel are definitely causing an impairment on my right side. And she pinpointed some interesting anomalies as she ran me through her tests. For example, she had me lie on my stomach and bend at the knee so my flexed foot was parallel to the ceiling. She had me raise my thigh off the table and try to hold it up, against the force she was applying to push the thigh back to the table. On my uninjured side, I was able to resist.
On my insured side, to my absolute surprise I couldn't even find the muscle. She was able to immediately push my leg back to the table.
For another test, she had me sit with my legs straight out in front of me on the table. "Tighten your quadricep," she told me. Again, I couldn't even figure out how to pass the message from my brain to my leg. Even on the unininjured side.
So I'm starting a series of daily exercises. Some are meant to strengthen the circle of muscles stabilizing the hip, leg raises at various angles and so forth. The more interesting (and perhaps challenging ones) are to teach me to reconnect the neural pathways that seem to have become unhitched.
Example: I lie on my stomach, with a pillow under my hips raising my butt slightly. My feet are flexed so that just the toes are on the table. "Tighten your abs," she said.
Okay, I can do that.
"Now, tighten your right buttock. Only your right buttock."
This caused both confusion and some hilarity. I had to reach back and investigate with my hand to see whether the muscle was tightening, because otherwise I simply didn't know. I couldn't feel it.
"Now, keeping your abs and right buttock tight, straighten your right leg so that the knee comes off the table."
It seems so oddly confusing. I find it quite fascinating, that my body has gotten its signals crossed so thoroughly, as a result of my injury, and I didn't entirely even realize it. I just knew my balance was worse on that side. She recommends that I NOT go back to karate for now, until I've worked on getting the hip muscles strengthened and the neural confusion straightened out. So another two or three months at least to wait.
So I went in and gave the PT my history, explaining that no, running isn't what I really wanted. Fortunately, she is very familiar with karate, because her son took it for over a year. She's also obviously very experienced and put me through a series of tests, knowing exactly what she was looking for. Upon taking my history and looking over my records, she said that we could tape the knee, but really, once I started, I'd have to keep doing that indefinitely. Much better would be to try to pinpoint the underlying problem and address it, so that I could gradually regain full function.
I had, again, the irrational fear that the problem would not manifest itself. The ligament, if it ever was actually sprained (the original diagnosis last December), seems to be entirely healed; that was good news. But the arthritis in the knee, together with some muscular problems and tightness in the Achilles heel are definitely causing an impairment on my right side. And she pinpointed some interesting anomalies as she ran me through her tests. For example, she had me lie on my stomach and bend at the knee so my flexed foot was parallel to the ceiling. She had me raise my thigh off the table and try to hold it up, against the force she was applying to push the thigh back to the table. On my uninjured side, I was able to resist.
On my insured side, to my absolute surprise I couldn't even find the muscle. She was able to immediately push my leg back to the table.
For another test, she had me sit with my legs straight out in front of me on the table. "Tighten your quadricep," she told me. Again, I couldn't even figure out how to pass the message from my brain to my leg. Even on the unininjured side.
So I'm starting a series of daily exercises. Some are meant to strengthen the circle of muscles stabilizing the hip, leg raises at various angles and so forth. The more interesting (and perhaps challenging ones) are to teach me to reconnect the neural pathways that seem to have become unhitched.
Example: I lie on my stomach, with a pillow under my hips raising my butt slightly. My feet are flexed so that just the toes are on the table. "Tighten your abs," she said.
Okay, I can do that.
"Now, tighten your right buttock. Only your right buttock."
This caused both confusion and some hilarity. I had to reach back and investigate with my hand to see whether the muscle was tightening, because otherwise I simply didn't know. I couldn't feel it.
"Now, keeping your abs and right buttock tight, straighten your right leg so that the knee comes off the table."
It seems so oddly confusing. I find it quite fascinating, that my body has gotten its signals crossed so thoroughly, as a result of my injury, and I didn't entirely even realize it. I just knew my balance was worse on that side. She recommends that I NOT go back to karate for now, until I've worked on getting the hip muscles strengthened and the neural confusion straightened out. So another two or three months at least to wait.