Lots of updates today, but first let me add my 12th step of recovery as I have reached my 1200 day! (Day 1300 will be over Labor Day weekend.)
The last 100 days were better than the 100 days before that thankfully. I have made some progress on my calf strength, currently doing single leg calf raises with a 50 pound backpack on. 4 sets, 8 reps. This will continue to progress and will stay in my rehab plan from now on. I also do nightly foot and arch strengthening moves. The foot can tolerate hiking a bit more. For my birthday we did a 5+ mile hike 1200 vert to see some waterfalls. I was sure I couldn't make it that far with elevation, but I did it! Biked a couple miles to and from the trailhead too. The lateral hip pain took about 6 weeks in all to resolve, with 2 of those weeks being acutely painful. I managed it by myself, reading stuff online, doing low-level glute activation stuff a few ties a day, trying to not cross my legs during the day, staying off the hip (no side lying or prolonged sitting), and what pieces of my ACL rehab I could still do. I told myself to just keep doing something (3 of those days I could do very little). I had to modify things for about 2 weeks before I could resume like normal. Now to the goals! Physio asked me what I want to do this summer. I said return to running and also resume backpacking. My husband and I can do this together and it's a great way to get away from crowds this year, plus we have a long list of places to see! So here is the plan he has for me. Basically hike 2x a week, run and lift 2x a week, and walk 3x a week (I'm sure one could be a bike). The weekend hike will be the day I work up my mileage over the summer. Adding in the midweek hike will hopefully get my foot accustomed to hiking demands, and avoiding the once a week spike in activity. Now the foot and hip just have get with the program! Physio was not too concerned with the hip and foot, we'll just manage it as we go along, and hopefully resilience will improve.
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Dammit to all hell. I have another flare up situation. This time it's my HIP. My hip has not been an issue at all during ACL recovery. But over 2 weeks ago, I wanted to do some cardio and didn't want to walk and flare up foot and biking wasn't going to work (husband was on a conference call where the bike is set up), so I carefully chose a very low impact ["quiet" was even in the title] YouTube workout. It didn't hurt during, I even did it twice through to get a good sweat. UGH. Hip pain started that night or the next, I don't quite recall. In hindsight, maybe there were just too many lateral side movements that I have not trained to do yet, despite working at hip and glutes stuff for 2 YEARS now, it has been all straight line stuff (forward or backward). Is my 7 week at home version not cutting it? Would this have flare up the same if I were still in my heavy gym based sessions? I don't know. I want to believe I had strong hips and glutes, but I guess they are not there yet. I've done a 10 minute aerobic workout including some lateral stuff as a warm up when I can't get on the bike, that didn't make it worse (maybe the dosage was acceptable?) About 6-8 years ago, I had this same hip issue. It came on after I over did Zumba one night in my basement. Over did it, I mean like 3 hours of hip swiveling, fast paced dancing. I was active at the time, but maybe not as strong as I could be in the glutes and hips. I ended up dealing with this issue for 2 YEARS without improvement despite getting a steroid shots, seeing a sports physician regularly (he was perplexed why it took so long), and 9 months of at home rehab. Now when I Google this pain, it seems like this now has a proper name: Gluteal Tendinopahty or Greater Trochanteric Pain Syndrome which:
I really think is what I had way back when, they were just beginning to call it a tendinopathy instead of tendonitis at that time but the doctor didn't go much beyond that (he even guessed a cortisone shot wouldn't work as there is no "itis"). About a week after the video, the pain was more like "hip aware" in the background. My foot was starting to feel much better so I went on a hike that had some elevation gain. Turns out hills are pain provoking for GTPS especially in the early acute phase. By that evening, I was stretching out my glute/hip doing the pigeon stretch and other stretches. Then next 3 days (including today) I am too sore to walk, sleep comfortably or sit down. Turns out stretching that pulls the hip into adduction is very irrtating. It used to be the treatment, now they know more. I found a great Tom Goom article on what to do in the reactive/early stages of GT or GTPS, they are:
So that is where I am now. I don't know how long this will last. I really hope it's a one time thing. Am I going to be ready to try out skipping in 10 just days? I am a bit worried. Is this going to set me back further? Probably. Is there any knee rehab I can still do that won't make it worse right now? I'll have to find out. I don't believe I am doing more damage, but I certainly don't want to deal with more pain as I don't have many tools that really work in the pain department. It's so nice out as well, I would love to go for a hike in the sunshine, but I don't think that would help with situation right now. Trying to use all my mental toolkit tricks right now because I am not happy about this. At all. |
AuthorA 45 year old active female who tore her ACL in January 2017 (at the age of 40). Reconstructive surgery in February 2017 with bone-patellar tendon-bone autograft. Archives
November 2022
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