#astym therapy

[abitofsilliness]

It looks worse in person. ;P

Today was my second Astym treatment and for some dumb reason I thought she might take it easy on my because of all the leftover bruising from Friday.. HA! No such luck. If anything, she was more relentless. I was wincing and gripping the sides of the table almost the entire time. You can't tell much in this picture, but my ankle is starting to darken all the way around because she really focused on that area today. NOT FUN.

The only good part about it is the soothing, gentle leg massage and stretch that she gives my leg when she's finished.

After the torture, we worked on all the usual hip exercises, plus a new elastic band walk. Same wide-legged, squatty position but traveling forward instead of side to side:

I also did a ton of toe taps (for my shins) and calf raises. Those hurt like heck because of the bruising.

Speaking of bruising, any idea why it's only visible on the inner, fatty part of my calf? I'm extremely tender all over, but there's not much bruising visible on the other side of my leg. Somebody educate me! ;)

[abitofsilliness]

PT appointment #2

First off, this is the last time I will go to her office wearing my scrubs and work shoes. This woman means business and I've gotta go prepared to sweat. She had me on the bike, then the squat-machine-thingy doing squats and calf raises, then some balance work while throwing a ball back and forth. Onto my hip strengthening exercises. Plus she added one more: elastic band walks.

She had me get down low with these, to really feel it in my hips. WHICH I DID!! She also wanted my toes and knees facing forward at all times (NOT like the gentleman in this photo) and that was so tough for me. This is the one that got the sweat trickling.

Then it was time for my first Astym treatment. Basically, she took these scary looking plastic tools -

- and scraped up & down every part of my lower leg. All the way down to my toes, the bottom of my foot and then up to my knee. Surprisingly, the part that hurt the most was my calf. I had trouble holding in the squeals! Apparently there was a lot of "build up" back there so she worked that area the longest.

She told me that I'd be a little sore and might bruise a bit - which means the entire lower half of my leg will be black and blue I suspect, since I bruise so easily. And I'm SUPER sore. Like, I haven't had an actual limp this entire time, even with as much pain as I've been in. But now, post-Astym, I'm limping. Oh well, it's all for the greater good! Each treatment is supposed to be less painful than the last.

I brought in my Zumba shoes at her request and she is NOT impressed by them. They've got to go. I was like "Even if I put an insole in them?" She just shook her head. *waaaah* If I end up with old lady white cross-trainers I am going to sharpie them in technicolor. LOL

So now I'm waiting for my doctor to call me back about a referral to a podiatrist so I can get custom orthotics and hopefully have my insurance cover them. And I'm on the hunt for good shoes for severe overpronation. The tricky part will be finding a shoe that's also appropriate for Zumba, since most of these kinds of shoes are made for runners and have way too much tread on the bottom. :-/

[abitofsilliness]

My PT appointment was this morning.

And I LOVED her. She was so kind and thorough and positive.

At first she was a little confused about why I was there, because my doctor had not sent her my X-ray or my MRI results. (I'MSOFRUSTRATEDWITHTHATWOMAN!!!)

But she began just working me over from the toes up. (I didn't think about her making me take my socks off and I was SOOOO embarrassed by the unsightly state of my toenails! But she said that I have great feet compared to what she often sees.)

#1: I have very flat feet. "Alarmingly flat." You should have seen her eyes when she watched me walk. I felt like a mutant! Jeremy's been telling me this for years. He's going to have an I-Told-You-So hay day.

#2. I have very weak hips. I'd been told this years ago, but really hoped that being more active had remedied some of that. Nope, they're still terrible.

My PT believes that these two factors combined are putting undue stress on my leg, my tibia specifically. My flat foot causes my ankle to roll inward and my weak hips cause my knees to point inward and my poor little tibia is in the middle of all that crying out for everybody to just straighten up already. She called my condition "pre-stress fracture." I'm on the very brink.

SO! The plan!

I need orthotics. Good ones.

I need to do hip exercises and shin/calf/ankle stretches.

I will be going to PT twice a week for ASTYM therapy, as well as ultrasound therapy and ice massage.

I will get laser therapy treatments at work a few times a week.

I will continue to take my pain med/anti-inflammatory. (Which so far hasn't upset my tummy.)

I have to take 6-8 weeks off of Zumba. Obviously, this is awful. But she said that I can bike, use an elliptical, do yoga, anything in the pool...just nothing that pounds my leg. And after talking with me about Zumba and seeing how much it means to me, she said we can aim for 6 weeks as long as we see improvement in my condition.

I'm going to teach my classes for one more week...partially because I'm selfish and WANT one more week before my hiatus, but also because I want to explain what's going on to my students and encourage them to find me on Facebook or my Zumba page so they don't lose track of me or I them.

But then I'm going to really focus on being a good patient. I'm going to take this 6 weeks to try some other classes. (Maybe even get in a pool. Lord help me.) I'm going to say hello to my old friend the elliptical. I'm going to do my hip exercises until I have the strongest hips in the Midwest. ;) Having to give up Zumba is going to be a huge bummer and I can't guarantee I won't get a little depressed because of it, but if it's ONLY 6 weeks and I can go back to being pain-free and enjoying myself, it will be worth it.