Just curious to see if anyone here has ever been thru, or knows of someone that has gone thru with IT Band surgery?
I’m approximately 13 months into a chronic IT injury, and there is no light at the end of my tunnel at this point. I’ve been thru chiropratic adjustments, massage therapy, two knee specialists, and also physical therapy. Massage seems to help, but not eliminate the problem. I’ve had a cortizone in the iT Band area which had NO effect. I’ve tried everything from completely eliminating exercise and doing only stretching and using a massage roller, to light running w/ no biking, light biking w/ no running, weight training, and no weight training, etc, etc. Everyone in the medical community i’ve seen says i’m taking the right measures, but unfortunately nothing is helping? I really hate the idea of surgery, but at some point i’d really like to have my active lifestyle back! Any advice or help would be GREATLY appreciated!
Surgery should be a last resort. From what I’ve read from others with IT band problems, 13 months isn’t unheard of. Might try different practitioners for a different approach?
I would go to an old school running shop that has a resident expert who will video tape you running. People who really know how to fit a shoe to a persons footstrike are hard to find, but, oftentimes a certain subtle change in your footwear will fix the problem, the trick is to find someone who can study your foot placement in slowmotion and pick the right shoes for you to try. Might be worth a shot, definately try this before going under the knife!!
Have you been to physical therapy where they apply moist heat to the whole leg, 15-20 minutes of exercise, intense stretching by the phys therapist, followed by ice on the area? (Ultrasound thrown in there somewhere as well, not sure at what point though)
If you haven’t been to physical therapy that was intense like that 2 or more times a week for a few weeks I would seek that out before surgery. Good luck.
Has anyone identified the cause of the ITBS? Sounds like you’ve gone through a heck of a lot to this point, and as others have said I would not go under the knife unless that was a last, last resort. What will the surgery do to correct the situation?—kind of a corollary to my initial question…
I am interested in hearing where this thread goes. I have read the forum posts on ITB (and started a number). I have had problems on and off for 2 plus years. Gone through gait analysis, new shoes, orthodics, extensive PT, MRI’s (to check for tears), stretching, rollers. You name it.
Its gotten to the point for me where driving a stick shift is a problem and I haven’t ran in 3 months. Haven’t ridden a bike or swam in a few weeks (kicking irritates it). Amazingly time off doesn’t help either. One physical therapist told me about an IT issue that ended with somebody on crutches. How bad can this thing get? Really infuriating. Anyways, I’m right there with you Kevin.
One suggestion I’ve gotten that I haven’t tried is Acupuncture.
Eamonn (Stuck on an eliptical and can hardly walk a golf course).
On a side note I ignored the IT stuff for a long time. Tried to run and trail race through it. For anyone else out there in the early stages of this thing, dont do that.
IT issues are products of the devil and are very hard to sort out (at least they were for me). In 2003 I ramped up to do my first IM in my first full year of Tris; big mistake. I got IT issues before the year was out and struggled for months afterwards. I finally just took most of a full year off from training and spent all my spare time fly fishing. When I finally started training again I took it easy and ramped up slowly and haven’t had any problems since. I don’t know what the root cause of my problem was but I’m guessing it was just ramping my miles too quickly and running a lot on the sides of canted country roads.
Best of luck to you. I agree that surgery should be a last resort, but I’ve been there myself and I can understand the temptation.
Had it as a last resort after having to give up running after 2 years of try everything - got me back in the game - done 5 IM’s since then after not being able to run 5 miles:)
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I had bad problems with IT and dropped from the sport for a while.
Have you tried complete rest? Complete rest until the pain is totally gone? This would be the first step in nipping it in the bud. Continue becoming the best swimmer you can be…
Here is a few things that should lick the problem
Get into a swimming program and drop running until pain is gone and then rest just a bit more.
Start water running if there is no pain with this.
Start biking when there is apsolutley no pain…
Get one of those foam rollers and roll on your gluts and side of legs. Do this 2 times a day and before each workout.
Get on a glute and hammy stretching program… Yoga perhaps.
Once healing has started use warm baths or hot tubs to promote blood circulation and do self massage on side of leg.
Once pain is gone time to start back into a running program. Build your runs with 2 times a week only, max will be 3 times a week… never venture to over doing things. Slowly build time running with quality runs… no junk miles. I can do Ironman runs with 2-3 runs a week and still run in the 3:30’s or less and one run is only a 20 min. brick run with strides in it.
Before each run and bike session keep your IT in check by doing roller and also self hard rubbing with your hand in the muscles just above your knee on the side. Also stretch after each run and bike… easy and light.
Never try and run through the pain and always finish each run eager to do more… error on the side of doing less and never finish a workout feeling thrashed… that is what races are for. Try and keep your runs on trails… and remember in your case opt for quality runs rather than quantity. Less running but faster.
You may also want to check your wear on your shoes and change often… I would stay away form shots and orthotics. They only mask the problem.
Good luck I know that IT is a pain but once you lick it life is fun and so is racing again.
I would definitly not do surgery unless everything else failed and even then… Have you tried Active Release Thereapy? I have had tons of success treating my patients with ART, however, the biomechanicals causes also need to be addressed for example, weak glut medium, rotated pelvis, leg lenght discrepency… has anyone filmed you running?
I had my right ITB “released” (that’s what the surgery was called) in December of 1998. Massage, strengething, stretching and all sorts of flavour of the month therapies didn’t work, and after Wildflower I wasn’t able to race. It was pretty quick (just local freezing) and I started a walk-run 4 weeks later. It’s been fine ever since.
Don’t give up, it sounds like you are on the right track, you probably already know this but there is lot of info here ion the forum for IT issues.
A couple more questions.
Do you have a leg length discrepancy? No leg length discrepencies per therapist and chiropractor
Have you tried strengthening your gluteal medius? For appx 6 months i’ve been doing one-legged squats, lunges, and side laying leg lifts which are supposed to focus on the medious?
Is your pain at the bursa on the side of your knee? Severe pain at the lower side of knee only comes on when running. Only minor pain (stinger like) during biking. Also have tendernous at hip area from all the stretching.
Does Chuck Norris know about this? just kidding needed to break the concern for a second.
Surgery should be a last resort. From what I’ve read from others with IT band problems, 13 months isn’t unheard of. Might try different practitioners for a different approach? I’m definitely not impressed with ANY of the practitioners i’ve seen, but I don’t personnaly know anyone that would be better?
I would go to an old school running shop that has a resident expert who will video tape you running. People who really know how to fit a shoe to a persons footstrike are hard to find, but, oftentimes a certain subtle change in your footwear will fix the problem, the trick is to find someone who can study your foot placement in slowmotion and pick the right shoes for you to try. Might be worth a shot, definately try this before going under the knife!!
**Other than a few test runs, I really haven’t run for the past 6 months, so if the shoes were the cause I would think the problem would have subsided? **
Have you been to physical therapy where they apply moist heat to the whole leg, 15-20 minutes of exercise, intense stretching by the phys therapist, followed by ice on the area? (Ultrasound thrown in there somewhere as well, not sure at what point though)
If you haven’t been to physical therapy that was intense like that 2 or more times a week for a few weeks I would seek that out before surgery. Good luck. Not that intense, basically some stretching and light exercise, and also ultrasound the last two visits. Haven’t noticed any benefit from the visits?
I am interested in hearing where this thread goes. I have read the forum posts on ITB (and started a number). I have had problems on and off for 2 plus years. Gone through gait analysis, new shoes, orthodics, extensive PT, MRI’s (to check for tears), stretching, rollers. You name it.
Its gotten to the point for me where driving a stick shift is a problem and I haven’t ran in 3 months. Haven’t ridden a bike or swam in a few weeks (kicking irritates it). Amazingly time off doesn’t help either. One physical therapist told me about an IT issue that ended with somebody on crutches. How bad can this thing get? Really infuriating. Anyways, I’m right there with you Kevin.
One suggestion I’ve gotten that I haven’t tried is Acupuncture.
Eamonn (Stuck on an eliptical and can hardly walk a golf course).
On a side note I ignored the IT stuff for a long time. Tried to run and trail race through it. For anyone else out there in the early stages of this thing, dont do that.
**I too have done all of the rolling, stretching, MRI’s, cortizone shot … all to no avail. My problem seems worse now than ity did when I did my last tri last June! If I knew rest would solve the problem i’d be more than willing to do nothing, but when I took an entire month off this past winter it seemed to actually get worse! I have never had an injury like this before so i’m really at a loss for what to do. Sounds like i’m definitely not alone. I ran into a fellow triathlete at the pool a few nights back, and his wife has been dealing with it for almost a year as well. 13 months ago I didn’t even know what an IT Band was! **
IT issues are products of the devil and are very hard to sort out (at least they were for me). In 2003 I ramped up to do my first IM in my first full year of Tris; big mistake. I got IT issues before the year was out and struggled for months afterwards. I finally just took most of a full year off from training and spent all my spare time fly fishing. When I finally started training again I took it easy and ramped up slowly and haven’t had any problems since. I don’t know what the root cause of my problem was but I’m guessing it was just ramping my miles too quickly and running a lot on the sides of canted country roads.
Best of luck to you. I agree that surgery should be a last resort, but I’ve been there myself and I can understand the temptation.
**When you say you took most of a year off, do you mean from any physical activity, or just running? Did you do any weight training, biking, swimming, etc, etc? **
Also did you do a lot of stretching and self massage?
(knock on wood)