Denial in Injury Land

If you were ever curious, it's really weird to have TENS/electronic muscle stimulation treatment on your butt. Also, it's probably my favorite thing ever. You basically get to lay there under some warm blankets and take a nap for 10 minutes while the machine does it's magical work.

Wait a sec, I think I need to back up a bit. I ended up getting another recommendation for another chiropractor who was certified in A.R.T (active release techniques) who happened to take my insurance! They were also able to squeeze me in bright and early, at 7:30 this morning. Who was more thrilled than I to get up at 5:45! (My boyfriend was sweet enough to be my personal alarm clock to make sure I actually did get up)

So I made my way into the office and filled out the myriad of paperwork that always seems to accompany a trip to a new facility. How was my pain? Was it dull? Or aching? Or gnawing? Or perhaps throbbing?

Dr. Williams seemed very attentive and asked me about how I got the injury, what movements hurt etc etc. The he poked a few spots on my lower back, left glute and hamstring to see where the pain was and wasn't. Then, he gave me the diagnosis that I pretty much expected, piriformis syndrome, coupled with sciatic nerve entrapment. BUT, there's was a twist. He was saying one or two of the symptoms that I was experiencing MIGHT be a sign of a torn hamstring. Holy fucking shit. He said that we would treat the PS and if it didn't improve within a week or two I would have to get an MRI to rule out a tear. HOLY FUCKING SHIT.

And then he said I shouldn't run. And I definitely shouldn't be doing yoga (if your hamstring is torn you definitely don't want to stretch it!!) Though, he said I should be running by the end of next week, of course I was bummed to hear that he didn't want me running. "But I ran 5.5 miles last night and felt.....okay" I told him, and he actually shook his head at me. Oh dear. I was really looking forward to this weekends run up in Rockefeller....I guess I could walk for a bit, but I wont.

This was also my first experience with A.R.T, and Dr.Williams warned me it could be a bit painful, which didn't really scare me. If you have been to Gail like I have, I was pretty sure I could handle whatever pain he threw at me. So he starts digging into my piriformis and asks me to move my leg this was and that way and he said "Does this hurt? Or are you just being really stoic?" and I kind of laughed, because did it hurt? Yeah, kinda. But it also felt kind of good. Like a good stretch. Okay, well there were parts he dug into that did not really feel good, or nice, and I feel kind of sore now, but at the time, it wasn't terrible.


So, that's that. Don't do anything that hurts. Roll my quads out, stretch my piriformis, and see him again on Monday.