Returning to running after Injury = Different Injuries?

Today I came across a site titled Thoughts of an Experienced Physical Therapist.  He said that the purpose of his blog was to share his thoughts about issues and injuries that athletes and others encounter in their return to sports after injury.  I thought, this is me!

I have been running for about a month an a half after not running at all for 13 years because of injury.  Just when you think you are free of injury, here comes more, should I say especially with runners?  I posted the links to his old blog and new blog (the old one has great stuff) because I intend to check into it to hopefully avoid more injuries.

When I started running again after finally getting rid of the ITBS, I started to have pain on the inner part of both of my knees.  My PT said this was tendonitis, and usually goes away with hip exercises.  I have been using the green theraband he gave me to do simple 4-point resistance exercises.  My tendonitius stays away when I do them, but wants to come back when I get lazy.  I only spend part of my day sitting, but that seems enough to want to weaken my hips.  I can't find a picture to post of the 4-point exercises, but essentially you make a loop in the band, put it around your ankle (wear a sock so it doesn't rubber burn your skin) and 1. face away from the band and kick forward slowly 2. face toward the band and kick your leg back 3. stand sideways to the band and pull your leg away from the band 4.  stand sideways to the band but pull the band across your other foot as you lift your leg out to the side.  I will keep looking for some images to clarify that. 

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Stretching with Pain

One of the reasons I didn't do several stretches while injured was that the stretches hurt, and we all know that stretching should not hurt, right?  Well, actually wrong; this was the key to me getting better.  Michael, my PT, had me start doing standing quad stretches.  Having ITBS, I felt pain on the outside of my knee when I did these and I got nervous.  I know what a healthy stretch feels like, and I was feeling specific pain in my knee.  He asked me the pivotal question, "When you stop doing the stretch does your knee still hurt?"  My answer was no, it didn't.  He said that as long as it didn't still hurt when I stretched that I was okay.  He said that the insertion point of all the ligaments attaching on my knee/tibia were what I was feeling. 

I continued to stretch with his rule: if the pain didn't continue I had stopped the stretch, then I was good to go.  For years I hadn't done the quad stretch because it "hurt."  Little did I know that this stretch, besides my PT assisted stretching, was the key to me getting running again.  The kind of pain I am talking about is not a 9 on a scale of 1-10, but more like a 6 or 7--it hurts.

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The Mysterious Leg Length Discrepancy (LLD)

After I was incorrectly diagnosed (unaware at the time obviously) with a severe leg length discrepancy (LLD) based on standing x-ray that was taken, I had a few main issues with this diagnosis even though I went ahead with it because at the time I thought my doctor had finally discover the cause of my inability to run.  But how could an x-ray be refuted,  not to mention that the lift prescribed to me was 1 1/2 inches high--substantial (For more see My History tab)?  If you have been told you need to wear a lift and it isn't working for you, maybe these will help you too.  Here were some of my issue with the diagnosis: 

1.  I still couldn't run, hike, swim, or ride a stationary bike without pain, even once I started wearing the lift.  If the lift was the end-all-be-all solution, why couldn't I still run?  Even after 4 years of giving my body time to "adjust" to the lift, I still couldn't run, etc.

2.  I had run in high school, college, even a major relay race (Portland to Coast) with no problems whatsoever.  If I really had that big of a LLD, why hadn't it shown up before now?  They told me that LLDs of this size were there since birth.  If that was so, why had I been able to clock serious milage over several years without it manifesting? The answers I found on the net left me unsatisfied--they said that you can get away with it until you are in your 30s or 40s, at which point the body just can't take it anymore.

3.  Doctors were not in agreement on the actual LLD measurement, despite the x-ray.  One doctor said that I had an LLD, but not substantial enough to need a lift.  Another doctor told me that I did have an LLD, that he was more sure of it than anything in his whole life (seriously), and that he could give me a lift right now that would solve my problem immediately.  Other doctors said I had an LLD, but that much of the population has a slight LLD between both legs and that he wouldn't recommend wearing one.  Here was my issue:  how could 5+ doctors all be at odds?  This was a main factor in me vowing to never wear a lift again.  I would not let the one doctor who practically swore on his life (and was seriously upset that I wouldn't accept his recommendation) talk me into wearing another lift. 

This was the same doctor who, knowing I had a knee issue and pain with activity, would tell me to go warm-up on the stationary bike before each session with him.  Anyone who knows ANYTHING, you think, would be wiser than this with their patients.  Needless to say, he achieved no results, but instead agravated my knee with his prescribed strengthening exercises.  If you are suffering from ITBS, exercises designed to strengthen your quad are only going to make your condition worse.  My favorite (joking of course) was the 4-point standing single leg squats that I was told I should do twice a day.  Imagine my frustrating when the more I did them, the more my knee hurt.  At the time, I got really discouraged, thinking "how am I even going to be able to get better/run again when the exercises that are supposidly the solution are actually making my knee worse.  Great recipe for depression right there.

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Welcome!

Thanks for visiting--I am just getting this site up and running. I will be adding much more information to come, detailing my journey, the various diagnoses I was given, and how it all go fixed. Please feel free to leave any comments--I welcome them!

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