Wednesday 16 September 2009

AHA!!!

Peace in yourself. Peace in the world. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Since 1996 I have had issues with my hip, but never knew why or how it started. Now, I might actually have the reasons behind the why or how!

Just before IMC I went to see an Orthopaedic Massage Therapist. I swear he is a holy being. He didn't ask a ton of information, rather he asked me to march in one spot. So I did. Then he said 'Stop, and don't move.' He then began to assess my body positioning from the feet all the way up.

As he was doing this I was doing an internal check. Hmm, my glutes and hams are engaged and I'm just standing here. Yup, I am leaning forward a bit.

No disc problem?! Oh thank you Universe above. YEOW!!! The yeow happened when he poked exactly where he thought the pain was coming from. How did he do that?! Needless to say, the look on my face told him he was correct, if not the vocal outburst.

From his assessment, it looks like I have an SI joint issue, which has my muscles on my left heaving up my hip, thereby getting my right side muscles to do all the work. This would include my erector spinae, glutes, hamstrings, hip flexors, and quads. Not to mention all the teeny weeny little muscles and tendons hidden in there. Phew, that's a lot of work!

No wonder my right side was always in pain. Well, actually not always. The fun actually started in 1996 when I took up running, the first time. I was training for a 10k. Things were going well till one day my hip felt like it dislocated. All together now 'OW!' At the time I was in college so went to see the physio there who uttered the words 'You may never run again.' At the time, I was none to fussed.

Flashfoward almost 10 years. I take up running again. This time though I'm also weight lifting. Every thing is hunky dory! Or is it. Turns out the moment I stop doing strength work my hip does the wobbly, pain, glute spazzing thing.

This has been cyclic for the past 4 years. So now that I know my body is not working very well on the left side and the right side is taking the brunt, I am trying to get the right side to let go, via massage therapy, so the left can start pulling it's share.

I've seen a lot of people about this, but atlhough there seemed to be valid theories, no one every fixed me. This time though, she whispers so as not to jinx it, it seems like things are working. The process is a mighty painful one and a little scary as I have this second Ironman race deadline in a couple of months.

So now I have a gal, J, who is working on me big time to get things to shift. The doc comes in when I get there, assess things, then tells her what to work on. It's at this point she apologizes for the pain she is about to inflict, bless her heart.

And pain she does inflict. I almost dropped an F-bomb the other day but turned it into 'FFFFUUUDDDGGEELLLLAAA' or something similar as I tried to breathe through the agony.

The good part is that even though there is excrutiating pain at times, and I do not embellish here, it feels like my hip is trying to go back to where it should be. This, in turn, should get my glutes to stop being in continual spazz mode and hopefully I will be normal again. Well, not normal perhaps, that would be boring, but my bod might be.

Oh, I have to tell this story, one time J had a patient who used to make farm animals when they were getting worked on. Seriously. Like mooing noises and clucking and what not. This totally cracked me up, till she hit the next 'spot'. I waited for a while then as she was really cranking up the pain factor I exhaled then said 'CLUCK!' Poor girl nearly fell over. You know, for a tiny thing she really is very strong.

This last session was particularly eye opening. We were trading stories and I was saying how long it's been that I've noticed this problem. I even remember in 2000 noticing that my right erector spinae (long muscle along spine) on the right side sticks up when I do straight leg deadlifts, but the left was flat.

Well, we start to talking more and I tell her of a story when I was rollerblading. To try and keep this psuedo short, it was in Stanley Park, I couldn't figure out the brakes on my blades (first time blader) and I was going downhill into an area that was fenced off. Oh ohhhhh...

So I did what any sane person would, I decided I'd do like in skiing and just fall to stop myself. Problem one with this theory, there was only concrete around and I had gathered some speed. Problem two, I went off the curb into the parking lot like a ski jumper, rather than lowering my centre of gravity.

I managed not to kill any tourists that happened to be milling about in a group. I think my very loud 'AIYEEEEEEE' got them to part like the red sea in order to have little ol' me fly into their group then land very loudly on me arse. OOOMPFFFF. Then I laid there as they all hovered over me speaking some sort of language that I didn't know. I laughed in order to make sure I didn't cry in front of them.

Oh the pain. Had I not been wearing wrist guards, my wrists would have both broken. They were the second thing to hit the pavement after my arse. Which, I figure, I managed to crack the tailbone. At the time I was an aerobics instructor and for months I couldn't do crunches or anything where I was resting on my tailbone.

I finished my little 'tale' and J said, when was this? I thought for a moment and said, oh likely 93, 94. That's when she said, I bet that's what started this all. Apparantly if you crack your tailbone it can heal crooked and twist things in that area and can knock you right out of whack eventually, especially over 16 years. Really??!!!

So it appears the mystery as to how this all started may be solved. Which is good and bad. Good because I knew something has been up for a long time, but didn't know why. Bad because it means once I get things in alignment I will have to keep vigalent to ensure things don't shift back. Ah well.

So kids, the moral of this story is always wear a pillow on your bundakadunk if you are going to go roller blading. Better yet, get rollerskates. They are much easier to stop in!

Peace out my lovely friends!

8 comments:

  1. Lessons I learned from this post:

    1. "Cluck" next time I am in pain, or better yet, "gobble" or even "moo."

    2. Never go roller-blading unless I learn how to stop first.

    Hahahahahaah!!! I was laughing when I read about you flying out of control on your roller blades. Did the tourists all take out their cameras and take pictures of you? Hahahahaha!

    I am soooo glad that they are fixing you up -- no wonder it is hurting so much -- 16 YEARS of crap to reverse!

    So, ummm, are you caught up on Sookie yet? :) :) :) :) :)

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  2. I just cuss real loud when they hit that spot. I just say - I'm really a nice person but that !@#$$% hurts and then proceed to keep dropping curses at them. Yeah, they're used to it.

    It is great to have it figured out, I think. Now you can really concentrate on getting it corrected. Yay!

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  3. Well that was an interesting and funny post! I'm glad they put it all together and now you have some answers as to why it's been like that. So what do they do that makes it hurt so much, press hard on the spot? Is there a way to "fix" it?

    I had a similiar fall when I tried to rollerblade for the first time(didn't break anything though) but I refuse to ever wear them again.

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  4. I have nothing positive to say about roller blading and neither doe the fire hydrant that I ran into.

    Here is hoping you get that all sorted out without too much clucking!!

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  5. Regarding the pain you feel at Orthopedic Massage Therapy, I know exactly what you mean. ;)

    Yes, Dr. S. is some kind of holy being.

    I'm SO glad that you're going to find relief. I'm VERY happy for you.

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  6. Roller blades are evil.
    But good to hear you are getting your body figured out and hopefully pain free...?
    I have noticed my left hip gets niggly since i had kids as that is where they were perched for the first 2 years of their life...

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  7. That is great news Susi!! Glad you got it figured out and I'm sure are on the road to recovery. Here comes Cozumel!!

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  8. Hilarious, frickin' hilarious. Well not really for you but definitely for us reading about it and visualizing the melee...

    Anyhoots, glad you got this worked out/sorted out. AND THANK YOU because I think I have the exact same thing contributing to my chroic IT band problems. My right SI joint is always out of whack which makes my left side work harder (afflicted IT band). I love you for this revelation...Now, who do I got see abouth this???

    You are funny. I like you, Suze :)

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