The groove, and getting back into it.
I just fired my physical therapist this morning. Granted, I only had one session left, but it's still nice to feel like I made the decision to end things of my own accord.
I saw a new doctor last week, thanks to brunettechicagogal's recommendation, and the fact that he was covered by my insurance, at Sports Medicine at Chelsea Piers (SMCP). He actually listened to me more attentively than the previous two doctors did, and allowed me more opportunity to voice my questions and concerns. I never at all felt rushed or pressed for time, which is a big contrast to the other doctors, who seemed to want me in and out as quickly as possible. More so, I expected to be rushed because I was his last appointment on a Friday, but it just wasn't the case.
Going off on a little bit of a tangent here, I have noticed that the high-paced doctor's office seems very common in America, or at least the NY-NJ area. I never felt rushed by medical practitioners in Canada. Not sure if this is just due to the typically high pace of the NYC region, or it's somehow a byproduct of the private healthcare system in the U.S. Could somebody please launch a study about this and get back to me with the results? Thanks.
Anyway, the good doctor admitted that he didn't know why I was still having problems when the inflammation seemed to have cleared out already. I told him that I had been still feeling some pain down the front of my upper leg, and that I've recently noticed that my right hip "cracks" audibly when I'm moving around. He said it sounded like my IT band was snapping (ew!) and we could explore a few things to resolve it, through continuing physical therapy with his therapist, who "lives for this kind of stuff". He still didn't think it would take more than a few sessions of PT to get me fixed up. Both of these things are just what I wanted to hear. SMCP has it's own in-house physical therapists, so of course that's where the doctor wants me to go. And with the lack of success I've been having with the other PT, this wasn't a big concession to make.
I say lack of success, not referring to the progress I've made, because I have made a lot of progress, but moreover to the poor communication and my state of confusion I've been in. With therapy up to now, I've walked in, had her do things with me with little communication between us and then I leave. Oh, if only other areas of my life could be that simple. However, in PT I want to know why I'm doing what I'm doing and what it's supposed to accomplish. She never told me any of that. When I told her that I'd been researching bursitis on my own, she said "Stop reading stuff on the internet", but wouldn't tell me what the points I was apparently mistaken on were.
I saw the new PT for the first time yesterday. A good looking, well built, young guy. He had a really confident, cool, laid back air about him, as if he'd just come back from hunting and had bagged a nice big deer. I'll call him Buck. He was definitely a pretty-boy, but a little too young and, well, male for me. Buck systematically went through all the usual questions, and did many of the same tests on me that had been done in the past.
Interesting here to note that, even for a runner, apparently I have immense tightness in my legs, particularly in my ITB and hamstrings. The doctors and PTs always comment, and in more than one case, show me to someone else, as if I were some kind of weird bug that they caught in a jar. When I went to therapy in Jersey a few years back, the PT called the intern over and said something like "Take a look at this one. This is how bad it can get in runners." Yesterday, Buck called over the other PT and asked his opinion as to whether such extreme tightness was cause for particular concern, but the other PT (who was older and I'm guessing more experienced) didn't think so. After Buck finished with checking me out and questioning me, he explained that he was going to give me a series of pre- and post-run exercises to do and estimated that it would just take two to four weeks to rid me of any leftover pain that I'd been feeling if I kept up the exercises. We then went through the movements and he explained what each one did for me, and what muscle or tendons it was working/stretching. At the end of the session, he wrote out the exercises and drew little diagrams for me to remember them with, and then explained what we were going to do next time: "We'll beat you up some." Oh goody!
If this all seems like common sense, as in: 'Well, isn't all that what you're supposed to do in phsyical therapy?', well then, you're probably right, but during my last twelve weeks, I haven't done much of it. Although my previous PT really seemed to know what she was doing, she didn't let me in on any of it. To top it off, I've been icing when apparently I should be using a heating pad, which seems just bizarre.
Buck also said I could continue running, but added that if I felt pain I should stop. So I rejoined the Flyers last night for the second week in a row, and I ended up running long, if you can call six and a half miles long, that is. I had actually only planned to run about five and a quarter, but when I broke off from my fellow teamates at 96th and Central Park W., I discovered that I once again forgot my metrocard, and being the cheapo that I am, I refused to spend the $4 on a one-trip card just to go a mile and a quarter and jogged back home to Harlem. I did all my exercises and stretches, and my hip feels good today, no stiffness. I'll need to cut back on my later runs this week to balance out the mileage (remember, only 10% increase per week!).
I felt great running last night, despite the humidity, and everyone else's cursing me out for saying how great it was to be running despite the humidity. Neither my hip nor leg bothered me before, during, or after the run. There are so very few things that I enjoy doing more than running, and it's unfortunate how much I have taken it for granted this past winter, setting PR after PR, without consideration for taking care of my body, ignoring the means for the end. Hopefully this time out I can be smarter. Every step is indeed a joy, and I need to remember that.
I saw a new doctor last week, thanks to brunettechicagogal's recommendation, and the fact that he was covered by my insurance, at Sports Medicine at Chelsea Piers (SMCP). He actually listened to me more attentively than the previous two doctors did, and allowed me more opportunity to voice my questions and concerns. I never at all felt rushed or pressed for time, which is a big contrast to the other doctors, who seemed to want me in and out as quickly as possible. More so, I expected to be rushed because I was his last appointment on a Friday, but it just wasn't the case.
Going off on a little bit of a tangent here, I have noticed that the high-paced doctor's office seems very common in America, or at least the NY-NJ area. I never felt rushed by medical practitioners in Canada. Not sure if this is just due to the typically high pace of the NYC region, or it's somehow a byproduct of the private healthcare system in the U.S. Could somebody please launch a study about this and get back to me with the results? Thanks.
Anyway, the good doctor admitted that he didn't know why I was still having problems when the inflammation seemed to have cleared out already. I told him that I had been still feeling some pain down the front of my upper leg, and that I've recently noticed that my right hip "cracks" audibly when I'm moving around. He said it sounded like my IT band was snapping (ew!) and we could explore a few things to resolve it, through continuing physical therapy with his therapist, who "lives for this kind of stuff". He still didn't think it would take more than a few sessions of PT to get me fixed up. Both of these things are just what I wanted to hear. SMCP has it's own in-house physical therapists, so of course that's where the doctor wants me to go. And with the lack of success I've been having with the other PT, this wasn't a big concession to make.
I say lack of success, not referring to the progress I've made, because I have made a lot of progress, but moreover to the poor communication and my state of confusion I've been in. With therapy up to now, I've walked in, had her do things with me with little communication between us and then I leave. Oh, if only other areas of my life could be that simple. However, in PT I want to know why I'm doing what I'm doing and what it's supposed to accomplish. She never told me any of that. When I told her that I'd been researching bursitis on my own, she said "Stop reading stuff on the internet", but wouldn't tell me what the points I was apparently mistaken on were.
I saw the new PT for the first time yesterday. A good looking, well built, young guy. He had a really confident, cool, laid back air about him, as if he'd just come back from hunting and had bagged a nice big deer. I'll call him Buck. He was definitely a pretty-boy, but a little too young and, well, male for me. Buck systematically went through all the usual questions, and did many of the same tests on me that had been done in the past.
Interesting here to note that, even for a runner, apparently I have immense tightness in my legs, particularly in my ITB and hamstrings. The doctors and PTs always comment, and in more than one case, show me to someone else, as if I were some kind of weird bug that they caught in a jar. When I went to therapy in Jersey a few years back, the PT called the intern over and said something like "Take a look at this one. This is how bad it can get in runners." Yesterday, Buck called over the other PT and asked his opinion as to whether such extreme tightness was cause for particular concern, but the other PT (who was older and I'm guessing more experienced) didn't think so. After Buck finished with checking me out and questioning me, he explained that he was going to give me a series of pre- and post-run exercises to do and estimated that it would just take two to four weeks to rid me of any leftover pain that I'd been feeling if I kept up the exercises. We then went through the movements and he explained what each one did for me, and what muscle or tendons it was working/stretching. At the end of the session, he wrote out the exercises and drew little diagrams for me to remember them with, and then explained what we were going to do next time: "We'll beat you up some." Oh goody!
If this all seems like common sense, as in: 'Well, isn't all that what you're supposed to do in phsyical therapy?', well then, you're probably right, but during my last twelve weeks, I haven't done much of it. Although my previous PT really seemed to know what she was doing, she didn't let me in on any of it. To top it off, I've been icing when apparently I should be using a heating pad, which seems just bizarre.
Buck also said I could continue running, but added that if I felt pain I should stop. So I rejoined the Flyers last night for the second week in a row, and I ended up running long, if you can call six and a half miles long, that is. I had actually only planned to run about five and a quarter, but when I broke off from my fellow teamates at 96th and Central Park W., I discovered that I once again forgot my metrocard, and being the cheapo that I am, I refused to spend the $4 on a one-trip card just to go a mile and a quarter and jogged back home to Harlem. I did all my exercises and stretches, and my hip feels good today, no stiffness. I'll need to cut back on my later runs this week to balance out the mileage (remember, only 10% increase per week!).
I felt great running last night, despite the humidity, and everyone else's cursing me out for saying how great it was to be running despite the humidity. Neither my hip nor leg bothered me before, during, or after the run. There are so very few things that I enjoy doing more than running, and it's unfortunate how much I have taken it for granted this past winter, setting PR after PR, without consideration for taking care of my body, ignoring the means for the end. Hopefully this time out I can be smarter. Every step is indeed a joy, and I need to remember that.
posted by Skylight at 8:33 PM
5 Comments:
I am SO glad you got another opinion!!! I should've spelled this out more clearly, but I suspected your experience with your PT was similar to mine in that we were being treated like widgets, i.e., enter the office, plop down on the table, answer the question "How's it feeling?" with a "Same," then go through the same old routine. Only when I asked questions did the PT explain what he was doing and why, and along with that, he had me doing these wimpy exercises to strengthen my quads when I was already doing squats and lunges with a barbell at the gym. Go figure. He never once tried anything new when, after a few months, I reported little, if any, progress.
Sounds like Dr. Stark was helpful, and I found him to be the same -- very attentive, very concerned, definitely wanting to help and communicate clearly what's what. Buck, on the other hand, sounds like a trip. Your description of him gave me a chuckle.
And, as I've said before, I relate 100 percent to your retrospective realization that we've got to take more proactive measures to stay in good running shape, lest you and I both get injured again. It's one of the best feelings in the world to run pain-free. Even in 90 percent humidity!
Best news I've heard in a while, my friend. It was great to run with you on Monday!
Regarding medical stuff in Canada vs. the US: From what I've heard anecdotally, the level of care in Canada is often better than here, with the caveat that it usually takes a long, long time to be able to see a doctor, especially for non-emergency situations. I know of several people who took out private insurance and scheduled major procedures (e.g. bypass surgery) down here because it could be done so much faster.
Would the US be better off with nationalized health care, though? In my opinion, absolutely. I don't think the current system provides enough coverage nationwide, and for those people that are covered by private insurance, there's certainly not much motivation in general to proactively take care of one's own health. Runners and other fitness freaks are outliers in Fat America, and I'm sure that health insurance does not factor one iota into personal physical fitness for the vast majority of people who do keep in shape. Less accessible health care for non-emergency situations and specialized procedures is not a bad trade-off for universal coverage.
Donning my flame-retardant long-johns now. . .
Strangely enough, chicago, your "same old routine" describes exactly what Buck is doing with me now. I guess we all respond to different treatments in different ways.
Well done sister! I hadn't expected anyone to turn around a completed study in such a short time! But actually your response goes well beyond my little question. I was just curious whether others felt that the health care service in America was as pressured and high-paced as I do.
You do score an A+ for a convincing argument to introduce national health care, although I'm not sure I agree. That said, I doubt we'll ever find out.
But you've seen Buck only a few times, right? I'd expect that in the beginning. But if treatment isn't working after a few months, doesn't it makes sense to try something new? I dunno; I'm no doctor or PT, but I do like practitioners who keep me in the loop and incorporate a Plan B if Plan A doesn't yield results.
As for national health care, I'm for it in theory, but it certainly is enough of a pain already to have to get a referral whenever I need to see a specialist of any kind, and I see several -- dermatologist, PT, etc. However, I might be willing to make the sacrifice of waiting awhile to get non-emergency care if it means more people who really need medical treatment actually get it.
I've just seen him twice now, and Buck only expects to see me for a couple of weeks, unless I have a flare up of some sort. None of this "months" talk.
Too many issues to cover in the topic of a National Health Care system, and I have no intention of trying to address them, at least not in this post. I will say that there is little wait in non-emergency health care. In Canada, we have "walk-in clinics", and they're the greatest things in the world. Feel sick? Drop by the clinic, no appt. needed, and you'll be fixed up with a diagnosis, prescription if necessary, and headed home or to work in an hour or so. It's actually the emergency health service that's more of the problem, and the overcrowding of health facilities, which is tha main reason I don't think it would work here in America.
Oops, there I go addressing it when I said I wouldn't. I'll leave it at that.
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