Thursday, November 12, 2009

No one told me

Is it only those involved in PT or who have to subject themselves to PT who know how damn hard and painful it can be? I realize that is the whole point, but man alive. I almost felt humiliated (my own self doing - not because of anyone else) that my muscle's had atrophied to this level. Here's the skinny...

Bone scan = negative. Good news. Off to PT. Testing at PT shows that what my masseuse found on Saturday was more serious than she thought. My pelvis is tipped inward, due in large part to my muscle's not pulling in the right way. My psoas muscle has apparently been working it's little ass off since, well who really knows when. My new PT believes since Little Missy was born.

Possible side effect of having a c-section and not rehabbing my ab muscle's properly. Well, what I really learned is that my lazy-ass left hamstring has been on vacation for the better part of two freaking years. Wanna rethink training for a half-marathon, much??? No wonder my body finally screamed at me to "stop, stop, stop this idiocy!".

Apparently, my psoas has been pulling the weight of most of the muscles on the left side of my body. Of course it is much more scientific than that, but you get the drift. It doesn't know how not to fire. It has taken on the brunt of keeping me upright. Add to that I ran on it for an average of 15-20 miles a week for 7 weeks and didn't really build the other ab muscles around it.

Here's where the humiliation or self-loathing comes into play. During one of the tests my PT conducted, she asked me to put my legs on the wall at a 90' angle while I lie on my back. Push my heels into the wall and lift my arse off the table. She asked me what I felt. "Not much", I responded. "Put your hands on the hamstrings", she requested. I did. "OK", I said. "Do you notice that your left hamstring isn't even engaged?", she asks. Hmmm... well now that you mention it....

How do I not know that my hamstring is not working? How, as a running, lifting, yoga person do I not freaking know my body isn't' working? Shouldn't I be more in tune with myself? Where did I let myself go? This whole thought process repeated itself 20 minutes later when she taught me my new practices to re-teach my hamstring, hip abductors and glutes to work. I was shaking so badly after one of them that she expressed surprise at how hard my leg was working. I have been compensating for this for so long I don't know if my leg muscles even know they are part of this overall body. It's absolutely crazy.

It's gonna be an interesting road to recovery. I have to stand differently, sit differently and generally keep my mind on teaching my left hip to move 'back' into position. I am very curious to see how much this has impacted other parts of my body (knee, feet, back) after I get this baby back into shape.

Whoa. I'm getting old.

2 comments:

Kate said...

When I was in PT for my broken leg, I was shocked at how horribly my thigh muscle had atrophied. I could will that muscle to work all I wanted, but I would NOT engage. Electrical stimulation only did so much and believe me, I practiced. And there's nothing like standing blindfolded on a foam pad and falling OVER to make you feel like a fool.

Fast forward three years and I have horrible back problems. Turns out, I never DID rehabilitate that muscle and my back was all kinds of screwed up. PT again and now? I'm super careful to listen to my feet as I walk. One of the best things I learned is that my stride should be in rhythm. For YEARS, I went ker-plop, ker-plop, ker-plop without even knowing it.

Hang in there. You'll get it going in no time. Amazing though, how our bodies compensate.

carrster said...

Ugh - sorry to hear about that! Hang in there and keep working at it. The body is amazing - as you know - and you'll be able to rehab it if you keep it up. Better to find out now at 2 years out than at 5, right??

Good luck & keep us posted!