I started my first physical therapy session Monday and let me tell you I had no clue what to expect and was presently surprised by what all I've learned and been told thus far. I've been twice now and will continue 2 x a week for a few weeks. I have no health insurance so, it's unfortunately going all on the credit card at this point b/c I have no way to avoid it and it's definitely nothing I can't do at this point.
Let's back up and get the back story.
At the end of January I was running and tripped over the sidewalk, busted a whole in my pants, bleeding everywhere and got back up and kept running. Then a few weeks later, I tripped and fell one of our Wednesday night group training runs. I felt like an idiot and got back up and kept going. Take it a few weeks further into February we had our first ice/snow Saturday morning and they canceled the group run and I decided to go out and run the 4 miles myself and slipped on the ice and fell yet again. Not my greatest tribute to running thus far but I got back up, pushed myself and finished those 4 miles. I kept with the training program and kept running 3 nights weekly and our Saturday long runs. I guess it all added up and take it to last Saturday, I woke up at the normal time, had my pre-training breakfast {1 piece wheat toast and 1 tbsp peanut butter} and headed out the door to meet everyone at our location. I woke up that morning with my leg hurting, but brushed it off. I got to the group run and we did our stretches and hit the pavement. About half a mile in I had a sharp pain and said something in the group, they all said to keep an eye on it. About half a mile later i was in tears, I couldn't hardly move, I had to stop or I was going to fall flat on the pavement. I went back to the car and got ready to leave, I sent an email to the PT who works with Fleet Feet and got an appointment this past Monday to go meet her for an evaluation. She recommended me laying off running for a bit, any exercise at this point she said and to come in Wednesday night to do PT.
Last night {Wednesday} I went for my first true PT appointment we started with dry needling:
via Wikipedia
In the treatment of trigger points for persons with myofascial pain syndrome, dry needling is an invasive procedure in which a filiform needle is inserted into the skin and muscle directly at a myofascial trigger point. A myofascial trigger point consists of multiple contraction knots, which are related to the production and maintenance of the pain cycle. Deep dry needling for treating trigger points was first introduced by Czech physician Karel Lewit in 1979.[11] Lewit had noticed that the success of injections into trigger points in relieving pain was apparently unconnected to the analgesic used.[8]
Proper dry needling of a myofascial trigger point will elicit a local twitch response (LTR), which is an involuntary spinal cord reflex in which the muscle fibers in the taut band of muscle contract. The LTR indicates the proper placement of the needle in a trigger point. Dry needling that elicits LTRs improves treatment outcomes,[12] and may work by activating endogenous opioids.[11] Inserting the needle can itself cause considerable pain,[11] although when done by well-trained practitioners that is not a common occurrence.[citation needed] No study to date has reported the reliability of trigger point diagnosis and physical diagnosis cannot be recommended as a reliable test for the diagnosis of trigger points.[13][14]
I wasn't sure as to what exactly to expect and it was sharp at times, not really hurt but just felt different, unusual. I could feel her getting to the reenactment of the pain that I've been experiencing during my runs and wow, it was a sharp pain at those points. She would ask me is this your pain and I would tell her yes or no. I put heat on it like she suggested last night and she gave me some exercises to do at home. She also said that Saturday I can try walking for 30 minutes, no running, but it's a start. I go back next Monday and hope that this works its magic and fast.
If you're in Memphis and need to see a PT I highly recommend you go see Mary at Results Physiotherapy .
No Germantown half probably for me, but I am still planning on doing the Nashville half in April.
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