I had my first physical therapy appointment this afternoon for my injured leg and I was pleasantly surprised with how it went. My Physical Therapist was a woman whom I’m guessing is about my age and is an avid runner and marathoner. She was really friendly, very knowledgeable, and was genuinely interested in my running, how I got started, what my goals were, etc. It was practically enjoyable!
Most of what she did today was stretching, examining, poking, prodding, and bending. She doesn’t think I have an actual stress fracture, but she did use the term “stress injury”. She thinks it’s a case of inflammation/stress of the connective tissue and tendons between the muscles and my tibia. I guess I was relieved to hear she didn’t think it was a stress fracture, but I was a little disappointed to really hear from a professional that this is basically just an overuse injury that will take some time to heal. We can and will do some work to help the healing process, but there’s no pill to prescribe for this type of thing. Ultimately, it will just take time.
Toward the end of our session, she started describing Trigger Point Dry Needling (TDN) and how it’s a really effective form of treatment for this type of problem. She said she has done it many times for similar issues and “swears” by it for recovering from this type of injury. Basically it’s the use of tiny needles (similar to what is used for acupuncture) to “trigger” (poke) the muscle at the “trigger point” (a knot) and cause the muscle to contract and release. Then she asked “is that something you might be interested in trying?”. So I said, sure, why the hell not, whatever it takes to get me running. Then she said “yea?” and looked at me like she was expecting me to say something further, and I said, “you mean like right now??”. Yea, she meant like right now, ha ha. So, what the hell, I said go for it and she did.
This is not me – it’s just an example of TDN.
It was not a sensation I would describe as pain, but it was most definitely uncomfortable. I couldn’t feel the needle poke my skin, but then I could definitely feel it “poking around” in my muscle. The sensation was definitely IN my muscle, I don’t really know how else to describe it. She moved it around a little bit (which wasn’t super pleasant), but then all of a sudden, my muscle gave a good twitch and she said “perfect! that’s all we’ll do today” and it was over. In all, it took maybe 90 seconds. Now I just have some residual soreness, no different from what you experienced after really working a muscle.
I must say, my leg does feel a little better. I’m nowhere near running on it yet, but it does feel a little less painful. I’m trying to remain optimistic about this whole thing and agreed to have her treat me twice a week for the next month to see what we could accomplish.
I’m definitely stressed out about not being able to run right now, but I’m really trying very hard to keep a positive outlook on the whole thing. I’ve been cycling and rowing in the interim, but damn, those sure don’t come close to running 🙂 I will have a new found appreciation for days when running sucks or feels hard after I get through this!
Becky
Lace Up And Live Life 