Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Major Setback - Nov.10, 2008

After taking 6 weeks off from running, I decided to visit the physio just to check in on the status of my knee. It felt like the time off was no help, and my knee still had some pain and some weakness as I tried to do some light running this past week.
I saw Jaimie Grimes yesterday who dealt me some good news and some bad news.
The good news is that he was able to conclusively diagnose my problem. The other medical professionals I spoke to could not. In short, my left patella tendon has been slightly torn at the patella attachment. Every run or deep knee bend puts stress on the connection, thus irritating it, and causing pain. Leaving the problem and continuing to train on it hard could lead to further tearing, not to mention osteo-arthritis. Repairing a bone/tendon connection is not easy, to say the least. The area is not supplied very well by the circulatory system, so healing can often take months and/or years. In most cases, the injury never gets back to 100%.
Jaimie Grimes works at Synergy Health Management. The clinic is one of only a few places in the province that has Shockwave Therapy. For 3 treatments, they can guarantee (with a 93% certainty) that a full recovery will occur in bone/tendon connection injuries. Furthermore, these 3 treatments happen 7-10 days apart, so with any luck, I'll be training again by Jan. 1st. The downside is that the treatment plan is $600. So, if you got the bucks and want a quick fix, that is the way it goes. Needless to say, I signed up for the treatments rather quickly. I am trying not to focus on the negative stuff with the injury or the cost of the treatment, but that has been hard. I am trying to stay positive and hopeful that I will be another success story of Shockwave.
I have my first treatment on Friday.