All you can do is tri

I’m not sure if those two words are actual words in the dictionary, but they best describe my morning today. 

First off, let it be known, that I was voted most accident prone my senior year of HS.  So the rest of this should not come as a surprise. 

I came off the night shift this morning at 7:30a at the hospital (3rd 12 hour shift in a row) and progressed toward the fitness center at the hosp.  Planned to do a short run and short swim in preparation for my first tri of the season tomorrow morning.  Ran for 15 mins on the treadmill, incline of 1.5.  Hopped off to get a towel before I did my 5 min cool down walk.  I left the treadmill going when I hopped off.  Accident # 1 - stepped onto the moving belt at the end, fell down catching myself with my hand, hurting my wrist and seriously tarnishing my pride and ego.  OMG!  Too bad no one had a video camera to capture it.  Two older men were there and they asked if I was okay and if I needed help.  They were nice enough not to laugh, at least on the outside…  I cut my cool down walk short and headed off to the pool.  Accident # 2 - As I was on my way to the shower to rinse off before going to the pool, I slip on the floor and end up jamming my big toe into a randomly placed tile molding on the floor.  YOWCH!  It still hurts.  Sometimes I can’t believe that some of these things happen when they do.  They definitely make me laugh, which I did a lot of today.  But now my toe hurts to stand on and I may end up having to walk the 5k portion of the tri tomorrow.     I’m icing as I type.  Hopefully that will help. 

Sometimes I wonder if things like this are meant to be a message or sign that I shouldn’t be working out or doing what I’m about to do….  Wish I knew.    I might not be so accident prone then.   Guess I’ll have to look forward to laughing more…. 

Today I had my first visit with my orthopedist regarding my lower back.  I’ve been having issues with it for years.  In 1999, I had a bout of sciatica which caused pain to shoot through my glutes to my calves, making it hard to work my day job where I was on my feet all day, as well as run.  In 2000, I threw my lower back muscles out playing ultimate frisbee.  The MRI said I had degeneration in L4 and L5.  Ended up having cortisone shots in my epidural space, going through a long series of physical therapy, and was unable to do much for a month or so. 

I finally healed up and got back into the swing of things.  Endurance activities carried on with various NSAIDs and ice packs.  I haven’t really had much wrong with my back since.  Recently though, the back pain has returned and I’m not really wanting to return back to my old symptoms.  The muscles in my back are so tight, they’re causing my lower back posture to be sway back-like and adding to the pain.  All of this is why I made an appointment with an ortho doc. 

My doctor is awesome.  In one look at my back with out an xray or MRI, she could tell exactly what was wrong and was able to determine that it half of it stemmed from my feet or rather my arch not being well supported.  This explains my daily foot pain which I thought was the unfortunate beginnings of arthritis.  The lack of support has also caused bunions - yuk, painful ankles, bursitis in my knees, and IT band issues.  My back symptoms of pain when I sit, stand, walk, and run are not just from my foot issues.  It turns out the right side of my pelvis is rotated forward and to the right causing my sacral illiac joint to be pulled forward and thus causing my illiopsoas muscle (two muscles: the psoas major starts at the lumbar portion of the spine and the illiacus starts at the edge of the illiac fossa/inside of pelvis, which both attach at the top of the femur and help to lift the thigh when running) to be extremely tight.  It’s so tight that that as it gets tighter it causes my back to hurt by pulling on other surrounding muscles.  Then, on top of that, the muscles connecting to my spine have twisted my spine toward the left (kind of like when you are ringing out a towel). 

No wonder my back hurts no matter what I do to make it better.  Muscle relaxers helped, but only temporarily.  Heat is the same.  Ice doesn’t release anything, just takes the inflammation away.  Pilates only makes it worse.  Yoga helps with the other affected muscles, but doesn’t fix the problem.  

As I sit at the computer now, I think I might know how my spine has twisted.  The ergonomics of my computer set up in regards to the screen, the keyboard and my chair has my upper body twisted to the left to type on my keyboard and my lower body is facing the screen to the right.  Note to self: work on this.  I might have to buy a new desk.   

My doctor has referred me to physical therapy so that they can undo what has been done over the last 7-8 years.  I also started seeing a massage therapist at a different PT office who is helping me to release the tight muscles by altering my stretching regimen.  I have to hold the stretch for 2 seconds, completely release the muscle, then repeat as long I feel is needed.  Each time I come back to stretch it should release a bit further.  The muscle though has to be completely relaxed by holding it with my hand or a strap. 

I initially made my appointment to ensure that I could make it to next year’s HIM - Pacific Crest in Oregon - and so that the previous symptoms didn’t return.  I’m so glad to have seen her.  I was really close to cancelling because of the new stretching techniques I learned.  I didn’t think I would need to see her.  I’m excited to know my back can be fixed and that I’m taking care of the problem early before getting injured.  I’m a little hesitant to go running though, now that I know what I know, which is why I’m writing this novel. 

To Do List: Buy Superfeet insoles to help correct foot issues; go to my PT appts; stretch better, for longer, and more often; use heat at night to help my back relax; continue taking naproxen; and focus on posture.