So Freaking Close

So after this third treatment of my back muscles things are feeling really good.  A couple of days after the treatment I got my back dry needled to address the adhesions that happen in response to the prolo injections.  That really helped but I still felt something not right, so a week later I scheduled another dry needling appointment and told the PT that I still felt knots in my back, right on the inside of the shoulder blade.  He checked it out and found out that the knots were in my rhomboids. ...I thought this is wasn't news, that I always thought my rhomboid needed to be addressed.  Apparently this was new to the PT because the rhomboid is almost never the culprit for knots in that area.  Doctors will often see that the pain is in that area and say "oh hey, strained rhomboid", when in fact is the upper trap almost all the time.

So yet again my issues are more unique/rare. And this is yet another example of don't just take what the expert gives you. You need to stand up and say "No, I don't think the problem has been solved" and still advocate for yourself.  If I hadn't spoken up I would still have knots in my rhomboid.

So having the rhomboid released, when I walked away from PT office I was feeling amazing, I had no pain in my back at all.  When I swallowed, my left ear decompressed like the right one.  It was so satisfying. It was like an itch had finally been scratched.

But later that night, I felt another muscle spaz and freak out.  It was a muscles that came down diagonally from my shoulder to my spine.  The next morning I was feeling almost the same.  I still could decompress my left ear like my right, but when I tried rolling around on the lacrosse ball I found some knots that would not release no matter what I did.

So one week later I saw the PT again, and when I gestured which muscle I felt tighten up he said that was pretty much exactly where the infraspinatus is and he checked that out in addition to all the other muscles around there.  When he stabbed the infraspinatus omg it was soooo tight.  Getting up off the table I had a real hard time using my arm at all, it was that affected.  Again though, it felt amazing in that my back was no longer in pain.

Now, as I write this, it's been one day since that session and my infraspinatus has already tightened back up.  The only other time I've had a muscle tighten back up this quickly was my psoas when I had the tear in my labrum.  I've been told I have a tear in my shoulder's labrum, so if this is the case I'm going to be pissed.

Why would I be pissed? I'd be pissed because a torn labrum is the whole reason I went to see Dr. Fullerton in the first place.  When I asked him about it he said it didn't seem to be an issue, that all the fraying in the muscles in my back seemed to be the issue.  Well, the infraspinatus proves to be structurally sound then I'm going to give him hell for not addressing it earlier.  I know I was giving myself by the end of this year to be patient with the treatment, but damnit I'm tired of taking these months off of my training.

Speaking of training, I get to go back to resistance training/sprinting in two days, and I'm super excited.  I will be doing like 3 days of the rehab and then it's back to squatting and benching with some sprinting mixed in.

Second Prolo Treatment for Shoulder/Back

So Yesterday was my second visit with Dr. Fullerton. When I saw him he had me perform the same functional tests as last time, but this time I was able to pass a couple of the tests! Progress has been made! I Still have a pit in my left hip capsule, and there was still a lot of work to be done on my back.

In fact, more issues were found with my back muscles than last time. I don’t know if it was crossfit or

Band-aids where I got
poked. Also, I feel like
 my back is  really
asymmetrical

high school wrestling, but something really messed me up. Thankfully, Doc keeps searching so that’s why he keeps finding things. I am very impressed with his thoroughness. They call this the “old couch new carpet” problem. When you get new carpet (fix one issue) you suddenly notice what you once thought was a perfectly good couch (some other body part) isn’t actually all that great (there’s an issue/pain).

 After he addressed issues with my back muscles the first time others issues became apparent. I didn’t really notice the pains just standing around, but when he poked and prodded me there were definite spots of tenderness that weren’t there before. Leaving the office, I was actually feeling pretty good. I felt stiff as all get out, and I definitely didn’t feel normal, but I have felt worse. I chalk it up to taking a Tylenol 3 with codine beforehand.

 At the end I commented about how Dr. Fullerton hadn’t addressed my labrum yet, and he said that he didn’t treat my labrum last time, and wasn’t planning on doing so since it didn’t seem to be causing me issues, combined with the fact that the tech report on my MRI was a little wishy-washy. I felt a little hesitant about this, but I’m not really in the position to boss a doctor around, especially while on painkillers.

Because he addressed so many muscles/points around my spine, both lower and upper back, I feel pretty stiff while typing this. I can’t really lean over to get anything, and even standing causes some issues. Thankfully I have a wonderful wife who is helping me out while I lay on the couch with a heat pad on my back as I watch the NCAA tournament. It could be worse.

Current list of ailments

Ok, so I went to the Orthopedist for the back and ankle pain on Monday.

First, the back pain. It's on my left side, right above my pelvis. It's a throbbing, achey, radiating pain. Doc thought the back pain might be kidney inflammation, but the test results came back negative, so it's muscular. I was hoping it was a kidney infection because that's easy to fix, whereas a bad back can linger forever. stretching my back by touching my toes doesn't hurt at all, but when I twist to my right (stretching my lower left back) the pain flares up some. Anyway, it still hurts constantly throughout the day, but it's lessening in intensity everyday. I've been reading up on the crossfit message board about back injuries, and there seems to be a point where you should exercise the back to strengthen it, but I don't know if that's what you should do if it's still hurting. Furthermore, the muscle injured doesn't seem to be the type that is worked out when you do good mornings, although I'm not sure. So I'm a little confused as to when I should return to exerises that work my core right now, but I'll go with the conservative approach. If you have any advice please feel free to comment I'd appreciate it. Fortunately, one exercise I can still do that doesn't work the back will also help with my ankle issue. So back to the ankle...

There seems to be some scar tissue in one of the ligiments in my ankle, and it's causing the tearing/bleeding/bruising that shows up on my ankle after I work out. While there is no pain just sitting there, the pain occurs when I really work my calf. The therapist took measurements of my calves, and my right calf is 16.5", and my left calf is... 15.5". My left is a full inch smaller than my right! I know calves take a while to recover, but two years after the break you'd think it would be back to normal. FYI, it is amazing how the body atrophies. My leg was in a hard cast for seven weeks, and when they took it off my calf was non existant. Anyway, the pain seems to stem from a lack of strength, so the thearapy is simply calf exercises. That's something crossfit will definitely help with, but until the back feels better, they reccomend I ride a bike emphasizing my left calf.

So it looks like I'll be in the PTO's gym, riding a bike for 30 min or something. Not really looking forward to it, but it's some type of exercise, and I really need that right now.