Friday, May 16, 2014

Promising news/injury update

We arrived at Canyon Ranch yesterday afternoon and I was able to see the PT this morning.  He was very, very good in my view and quickly diagnosed my calf injury and it's apparent cause.  I was correct in identifying the Peroneal Longus as the area of pain but the PT's view is it was not tendonitis but rather an injury to the actual muscle--a tear of some type.  This was good and bad news.  Good news in that it wasn't a tendon issue--which I think can be quite difficult to fix at times.  Bad news, in that like a hamstring injury, a Peroneal muscle tear can linger for a while.  However, it's one of those things that can be treated with Rest, Ice and Compression and I should be able to get out and do some modest cycling beginning tomorrow and perhaps test the waters running-wise next week.  I have a green light to do things--I just have to stop if I feel the pain....we'll see beginning tomorrow.

The better news is that the PT diagnosed that I had Right Anterior/Left Posterior Pelvic Torsion--my pelvis was out of alignment.  This mis-alignment causes my left hip to ride higher than my right and for my right leg to be functionally longer--I had previously know about this leg-length difference but had basically assumed there wasn't much I could do about it.  He proceeded to re-align my pelvis by yanking quite hard on each leg--they litterally "popped" quite loudly--it felt weird but not painful.  We we re-tested the pelvis alignment my legs were now the same length.  He explained I was stressing my Peroneal Longus on my left, shorter leg because I had to roll my ankle more to make up for the relative shortness--this rolling was what was straining the Peroneal.

He gave mean the names of some Osteopaths in DE to follow up with if I needed it and also showed me an exercise I could do daily, which he thought would have a good chance of keeping me in alignment.

Later that day I had a 100 minute neuromuscular therapy on my glutes and legs.  This is a lot like trigger-point therapy, which at times feels a bit unpleasant, but really seemed to loosen things up quite a bit.

The upshot of all of this is my legs generally and my left calf specifically feel a great deal better.  I'm not out of the woods yet but am hopeful and optimistic that I've got a clear path to full recovery.  The next test will be a couple of hours on the bike tomorrow....

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