Aj without getting into the gory details, I had a bad bike crash (head/spine smashed into a house and left knee and psoas all ripped up…that was 2011. I actually got back to tri later in 2012 after an initial period during which I could not walk from leg spasms, which now I know were caused by scar tissue on the psoas tugging at the pine in L4/L5 region. In any case, intially did not have enough control over leg to walk/bike/run but gained it back. My run speed was instantly down by 10-15 percent depending on they day, which I later realized was due to lack of range in left psoas and associated left glute and hamstring.
In 2015, I was at an ART session, and it was literally the straw that broke the camels back. By the next day, could no longer walk/jog/bike without total loss of control of left leg. Being in Canada they did not treat me seriously about surgery, so I went on 4 cortisone shots from 2016 to late 2017. By 2018 I was doing light jogging holding the rails of the treadmill. And then in the spring of 2019, I got back to a single outdoor run of 30 min. Also in spring of 2018 I got back into biking, but I promptly got run over by a school bus on my right arm and right tibia and foot. Fortunately, that was right side of body, with nothing but broken parts and bruises that eventually fixed up. In any case during the entire time I was swimming around 100km per month and staying fit and once I was able to bike and jog again, in 2019 did several olympic tris and a half and same in 2021 after C19 lockdowns allowed for events in Ontario and Quebec. I was on track for a decent year (for me) last year, and reinjured the entire area working on fixing my woodway treadmill of all things (I was fixing slats , and hunched over for something like 3 hrs removing stripped screws and later in the day when to lift something benign and everything went to shit.
I got another cortisone shot at the end of last Aug, and as I had qualified for St. George 70.3 Worlds, I went and kinda went through the motions (bike was OK with low torque, and generally aero position with weight on elbows is better than road position with all weight on butt). After this most recent flair up, my swim times are down by literally 8 seconds per 100m in all strokes because I don’t want to torque hard with twisting with my lats and psoas while countering the other way with legs and kicking hard…so my “anchor” from my legs is floppy and I slip more with my catch. But its a question of working with what I got working now.
I wonder sometimes if I should just go to the US and pay for a laser surgery than this endless management around mobiliity and the occaisional cortisone shot…the latter can’t be good long term. I think at this point I am up to 6-7 over an 8 year window. Each one had a small “bump” but none of them did magic
I have a set of crutches in my basement where I keep my bikes and rollers and I keep wanting to throw out the crutches, but I know I am one bad event from being back on them at at time. Just last week my landlord offered us to move my company from a ground floor suite that is accessible to the second floor one which is much nicer but no elevators and having spent almost a year not being able to walk and the disaster of having to get around with crutches on stairs, I have a more compassionate view of people with mobility challenges too. I forsee a time when I may be in that camp, but as long as I can get to a pool deck and slide into the water, life will be OK.
Hopefully your case is something you can overcome, and get back to a decent quality of life. The Cortisone shot does have a tiny risk, but likely it will help put the current fire out from which you can work your mobility etc.
