So this is the third treatment of my shoulder/back muscles by Dr. Fullerton. It seems that normally people’s issues are fixed after only just the first treatment so the fact that I’ve had three treatments makes me a bit of a rarity (something I already knew). I can see why it usually takes two treatments max because everything that he has addressed is so much better than it was before. The thing is, I have so much wrong with me that he can’t get it all in one session. I don’t think this is lack of ability on Doc’s part, it’s just we are peeling back layers of issues and I happen to have a Goddamn lot of layers.
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Each band-aid covers at
least two needle marks. |
He addressed a lot of my QL, the one that made me think I had a kidney infection. At one point when he was injecting me the area started spasming/twitching. This is, it seems, is a sign that whatever he’s working on is really needing it. So hopefully all of the issues with my lower back have been addressed.
He also felt around my upper back and worked on the rhomboids and upper trap area, to name a few places. I believe some of the injections were directed to the inferior part, beneath the shoulder blade. As with the lower back, I really hope that he’s done with the upper back as well.
Because most people don’t need a third treatment, they didn’t set out a huge block of time with me. I told them that might be a mistake when we were scheduling it but they said don’t worry. Well I’m a little peeved because I was really hoping they could address my hip as well. Even though Dr. Fullerton was not able to address my right hip, I asked him to at least check it out with the ultrasound and come up with a diagnosis. That, he obliged me with (and I thank him for that, this was at 7:30pm the day before he was travelling to Greece for vacay).
He checked it out, and pretty quickly came up with a diagnosis: I had some damage to a ligament or tendon right next to my femoral artery and femoral nerve in the inguinal crease. He looked a little perplexed when he was checking it out, but that could be the face he normally makes when he’s checking something out for the first time (every other time I’ve been face down on the table so I’ve never seen this.) Right now I really can’t remember the name of the tissue that is damaged. Right now I’m going with the iliolumbar ligament, though when the office responds for my request for info I’ll edit this post accordingly.
He asked me if I was having problems raising my leg, and I told him there was this drill in sprinting class where we have to lift our leg back and forth over a hurdle, and while I was solid as a rock on my left leg my right leg is super wobbly. He said that’s probably the problem then.
While it’s nice that I now know what the issue is, I’m kind of wondering what to do about it now. Ideally, I would have had the injections performed and I would be back to working out in a month. But now I have two choices. I can either wait three months from now and get it done and then take another month off, or I can try to get the hip treated ASAP and then end up taking like seven weeks off (his next available is like three weeks from now).
I’m think of holding off. To be honest my hip doesn’t really bother that much anymore now that I have the dry needling, and I am just starting to make friends at my sprinting group. I want to be active in that group, and the idea of me taking two months off really chaps my hide. So it looks like I will probably have to wait a little bit longer to become 100%. I’ve waited so long, what’s a couple more months right?
