Hey All,
I have been on a wild ride recently, and have used Slowtwitch to search my symptoms and study up on my potential injury, and I have come today to seek guidance. I will make this as concise as possible.
I was training for a half marathon that was March 1st. Mid-February I started experiencing classic IT band symptoms during my runs. Pain on lateral side of knee starting midway through my run. It would start as a nibble, then quickly escalate to solid pain. It would relieve post-run, and I went forward with my half marathon. I finished the race (pain came on about mile 7) and knew it was time to shut down running for a bit. After the race, I kept riding, but I just didn't feel all of that great while riding, so I shut that down too. My last S/B/R was on April 6th. I was doing the typical ITBS stuff (clams, monster walks, etc.) and not only was it not improving, but it seemed to be getting worse. I had a digital doc appointment followed by digital PT, and they both thought it was ITBS and thought I may have just been pushing too hard (I can only imagine how difficult it is for them to diagnose without actually being able to assess me). After pushing through a bit longer on my own, the ITB pain became constant, and I knew this wasn't going to go away on its own.
Clinics around me started opening up in mid-may, so I made an appointment with a PT and figured seeing them in person would help. I went in on day-1 with the tightness on the outside of my knee and some hip "junk" and tightness. After an assessment my PT informed me that she thought all of my issues were stemming from my lower back. I was demonstrating some minor weakness in my left foot (compared to my right), and she thought I had a pinched nerve. She is a Mckenzie method PT (that was by luck), and we started moving forward with her approach to addressing back pain. After day 1, my lower back was killing me. It was crazy to me, because I wasn't experiencing any back pain up until this point, but she explained the importance of centralization and how this was actually a great sign. This was then confirmed by reading all of the stories on slowtwitch.
I am now on week 4 of PT and things seem to be taking a turn for the worse. My back is sooo much looser than it was. I can do my extension exercises like a pro and while I didn't realize my back was tight before, I can tell now just based on how loose it feels. The problem is, a few weeks into this PT I started experiencing some pretty rough sciatica (pain in foot, pain in hamstring, pain in butt). It seems like the pain is shifting CONSTANTLY. The sciatica is new, and didn't start popping up until week 2 of PT. I am starting to get the feeling that she doesn't know what we need to do to address this, as my pressups and everything else can't seem to get this pain out of my foot and back into my back.
I am pretty lost. This whole journey started with me thinking "I can't wait to get back on my bike" and that has turned into "I can't wait until I start feeling normal again".
I have an MRI scheduled late next week. The back doc/neurosurgeon that I was recommended to through cycling friends won't see me until I have an MRI for them to review, so I am going to grab that MRI and get an appointment there.
Do any of you have thoughts or have gone through something similar? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Slowtwitch!
Nick
I have been on a wild ride recently, and have used Slowtwitch to search my symptoms and study up on my potential injury, and I have come today to seek guidance. I will make this as concise as possible.
I was training for a half marathon that was March 1st. Mid-February I started experiencing classic IT band symptoms during my runs. Pain on lateral side of knee starting midway through my run. It would start as a nibble, then quickly escalate to solid pain. It would relieve post-run, and I went forward with my half marathon. I finished the race (pain came on about mile 7) and knew it was time to shut down running for a bit. After the race, I kept riding, but I just didn't feel all of that great while riding, so I shut that down too. My last S/B/R was on April 6th. I was doing the typical ITBS stuff (clams, monster walks, etc.) and not only was it not improving, but it seemed to be getting worse. I had a digital doc appointment followed by digital PT, and they both thought it was ITBS and thought I may have just been pushing too hard (I can only imagine how difficult it is for them to diagnose without actually being able to assess me). After pushing through a bit longer on my own, the ITB pain became constant, and I knew this wasn't going to go away on its own.
Clinics around me started opening up in mid-may, so I made an appointment with a PT and figured seeing them in person would help. I went in on day-1 with the tightness on the outside of my knee and some hip "junk" and tightness. After an assessment my PT informed me that she thought all of my issues were stemming from my lower back. I was demonstrating some minor weakness in my left foot (compared to my right), and she thought I had a pinched nerve. She is a Mckenzie method PT (that was by luck), and we started moving forward with her approach to addressing back pain. After day 1, my lower back was killing me. It was crazy to me, because I wasn't experiencing any back pain up until this point, but she explained the importance of centralization and how this was actually a great sign. This was then confirmed by reading all of the stories on slowtwitch.
I am now on week 4 of PT and things seem to be taking a turn for the worse. My back is sooo much looser than it was. I can do my extension exercises like a pro and while I didn't realize my back was tight before, I can tell now just based on how loose it feels. The problem is, a few weeks into this PT I started experiencing some pretty rough sciatica (pain in foot, pain in hamstring, pain in butt). It seems like the pain is shifting CONSTANTLY. The sciatica is new, and didn't start popping up until week 2 of PT. I am starting to get the feeling that she doesn't know what we need to do to address this, as my pressups and everything else can't seem to get this pain out of my foot and back into my back.
I am pretty lost. This whole journey started with me thinking "I can't wait to get back on my bike" and that has turned into "I can't wait until I start feeling normal again".
I have an MRI scheduled late next week. The back doc/neurosurgeon that I was recommended to through cycling friends won't see me until I have an MRI for them to review, so I am going to grab that MRI and get an appointment there.
Do any of you have thoughts or have gone through something similar? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Slowtwitch!
Nick