Nice and slow

It’s been almost a week since my first doctor’s appointment. I’ve been doing the exercises my doctor recommended every other day, gradually increasing reps/sets.

Last night, I decided to go on my first post injury run. I was debating how hard I should push myself. My knee was feeling better but not 100%. I also needed to take it easy since I hadn’t been on a run since the Disney Half on September 5.

I remembered that my BF was interested in starting the C25K (Couch to 5K) program. He’s never really considered running because he used to get really bad shin splints in the past. He recently had a gait analysis done and bought a new pair of shoes, so we’re hoping that with proper shoes, he can run with minimal (or ideally no) pain.

We decided that it would be the perfect time for him to start the program. He can start off slowly, and I can ease my way back into running, hopefully without aggravating my injury.

After a “brisk 5 minute warmup”, we did intervals of 60 seconds jogging/90 seconds walking. It was a nice return to running, but I kept forgetting to switch from jogging to walking. Oops.

Including our warmup/cooldown walk, we ran about 1.59 miles. I tried to powerwalk and maintained a slow and steady pace while I ran (about a 13:50 ish pace).

My custom orthotics won’t be ready for about another week, so despite the short distance, I ran with my knee sleeve on “just in case”. I stretched out and foam rolled when I was done, and iced my knee after my shower. So far, so good. No pain =)

I’ll continue the program a little longer with the BF, until he feels motivated enough to run on his own. If he sticks with the program, it has him running his first 5K the week of Thanksgiving. I want to sign us up for a local Turkey Trot – move your feet before you eat!

 

Incorrect friendly diagnosis

Last Thursday, I had an appointment to have my knee pain checked out. I was honestly pretty nervous, despite the fact that I wasn’t even feeling pain at the time. Since my pain occurred pretty inconsistently, I was confident that nothing MAJOR was wrong with my knee, but what did I know?

Truth be told, I didn’t spend too much time researching what could possibly be wrong with my knee. I’m somewhat of a hypochondriac, so I was afraid that if I researched, I’d convince myself that I had symptoms A, B, and C and “oh no, this is wrong with my knee and I’ll have to have surgery or maybe I won’t be able to run or even walk ever again!” Once I let my overactive imagination go, who knows I much I’ll be able to freak myself out!

However, since I had about a week until my appointment, I had some time to discuss my injury with a few friends. When I described the pain I felt, almost everyone told me that it seemed like I was suffering from the common injury Runner’s Knee. I really didn’t know too much about it, aside from what I’ve learned from various blogs. The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced that I had been diagnosed…just needed to get the confirmation and advice for treatment from my dr.

A couple of days before my appointment, I spoke with my brother (who is probably the most serious runner I know amongst those in my inner circle) and he told me that while he wasn’t absolutely sure, he thought that I wasn’t suffering from runner’s knee, but rather another common injury, Iliotibial Band Syndrome. I thought about it, but figured that it was probably runner’s knee, since so many people had originally thought it was.

The BF is awesome and drove me to my appointment for moral support. I got there a little early, filled out some paperwork and waited to be seen. Since I was so early (I was so afraid traffic would get me there late), the doctor wasn’t ready to see me. My doctor is actually the owner of the running store where I had purchased my shoes 4 months earlier, so his office was connected to the store. I strolled around the store, and had to restrain myself from purchasing all the new (adorable) running gear. I also distracted myself by playing with the cute puppy that was roaming around the store.

I was finally called in and met with Dean, one of the other chiropractic associates. He introduced himself to me, and informed me that he’d be helping out with my appointment. I sat down and took out the list of symptoms that I had written up at work earlier that day. Since my symptoms were sporadic, my BF had suggested that I keep a running log of when symptoms occurred, what I was doing when I felt them and how long they lasted. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but of course I lost the first list during our move. I was glad that I re-written the list because I’ve been known to forget details when I am excited, nervous or flustered.

After I had named a few of my symptoms, Dean immediately said that he was almost 100% certain what was troubling me, but that he’d have Victor, my doctor, confirm that. The doctor met with us soon after, and after Dean repeated what my symptoms were, they agreed that I had named a few key symptoms. Victor said that he’d have to do his due diligence and perform the physical tests just to be 100% sure. After performing the tests, he asked if I had an idea what could be wrong with my knees. I let him that I was pretty sure I was suffering from runner’s knee. He corrected me and informed me that I was actually exhibiting all the classic symptoms of ITBS after all. Also, he had me stand in front of a mirror and showed me my knees. They actually fall rather close to each other, and when I run, I can see them moving in towards, each other, causing the pain on the outsides of my knee.

(I informed him that I was pretty surprised that it was ITBS, and that my brother was the only person who correctly diagnosed me. Apparently, my brother is a genius and is welcome to practice with them anytime, haha)

We discussed what my short term training goals were and then Victor recommended that I buy custom orthotics to help reduce the biomechanical strain on my itb/knees. I debated asking about more cost effective options, but decided to go ahead with customs, since it’d be covered by flexible spending and I wasn’t sure I’d use all of my FSA money before the end of the year. They performed another gait analysis test to fit my orthotics, and then Dean proceeded to show me a series of exercises that will help strengthen my muscles. Hopefully these exercises, plus my orthotics and foam rolling will allow me run without needing knee sleeves!

As for now, I am CLEARED TO RUN short distances, but promised to stop if I felt any pain whatsoever. I will also be performing my PT exercises every other day, starting with one set, then eventually working my way up to three.

It feels great to know what’s wrong and what I need to do to fix it =)

 

Progress

Today, I was finally able to schedule an appointment to have my knee checked out. I was originally very confused about who I should see. Thinking it’d be best to go through insurance, I called my primary care physician to get a referral. The only problem with this was the fact that I had just changed PCP’s last month and needed to make a “new patient” consultation appointment first. This wouldn’t be so horrible if the next available appointment wasn’t until October 28th!

Knowing that I couldn’t (and shouldn’t/didn’t want to) wait that long, I considered my options. Following the advice of a few friends and fellow bloggers, I decided to ask my local running store for suggestions. I was actually notified via twitter (proof that social media is amazing) that I could go directly to the running store for assistance. It was then I remembered that the owner is actually a Dr. and runs a practice next door. I was told to drop by and  got ready early the next day. Of course,  I called to make an appointment and found that they were actually closed that day.

I left a message and was actually really excited (and nervous) about waiting for a call back. Today, I kept checking my phone all morning, until I realized that they didn’t actually open until 11am. Of course, when the call finally came at 11:32am, I missed it because I have the worst phone in the entire world (seriously? the blackberry storm is a  piece of _____. I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst frenemy). Eventually, after a couple of rounds of phone tag, an appointment was finally set for Thursday, September 23.

I’m excited to finally have an answer, slightly nervous that it’s worse than I anticipate it being, and am VERY scared to see a final bill. I’m glad that I didn’t decide to wait for my dr’s referral, because I learned today that my insurance doesn’t even cover it. The thought of that stressed me out, and while I know it’s important to get my knees checked out so I can run (or more importantly walk), I freaked out at the thought of actually having to finance this. Now, I only know the cost of treatment via my new doctor, so I have no idea if it’s a good price or not. My savior was realizing that it would be reimbursed via flex spending. Thank goodness for that!

So now, I sit and wait…and eat lots of cookies to help soothe my anxieties =)