Prolotherapy

I had a follow-up with Dr. Boyer yesterday. He said that my MRI from April is normal. On further exam, he said that my right knee joint is loose compared to my left knee joint. He asked me if I had ever twisted my knee. The only such event that came to mind is the time that I stepped on the inside of a leaf-covered rock with the outside of my right foot while running trails last Fall. This caused a sharp, inward twist of my knee. He thinks that this could have stretched out my MCL, causing the loose joint. He said one would definitely have pain with a loose joint.

All of this seems a bit far-fetched, but it's all I've got right now. I'm going to start prolotherapy treatment on 8/31 and see if a few sessions of that don't do the trick. We gotta tighten up that joint.

Dr. Boyer

After 3 follow-up phone calls to Dr. Boyer's office, I finally received a call back from his assistant who informed me that the doc has looked at my April MRI and is now ready to see me back. Hooray! I guess that's what it takes sometimes. My follow-up appointment is on Tuesday, 8/23 at 7:45/am in Glastonbury.

I think all this bears repeating:

I was never really convinced that it was tendinitis (the chiropractor almost had me, though). One need not look any further than this blog to figure that out. I can now think of a number of times when I might have injured my meniscus, thus I think it was a freak injury and not necessarily caused by a movement disorder. The more conservative docs will have you believe that every running injury is caused by some sort of malalignment.

I've logged thousands of miles since 2003, but never once have I had anything remotely like this wrong with either knee. (I've heard all of the counter-arguments that go something like this: Well, that's like saying that I've smoked for a million years but never had cancer.) Not even a twinge here or there to indicate that there might be a problem. I'm convinced that my injury could be related to 1) the time I twisted my knee on a rock running trails with Dan and Karolina (you may recall?) last fall or 2) the time I ran a mile through knee-deep snow (literally) last winter.

I'm kind of fed up with the guessing games that the docs are playing with me right now and would really like someone to just tell me exactly what it is wrong. I do, however, realize that's it's not an exact science. If that can't be done without scoping my knee, then I guess that's what I'll have to do. It's been too long already, and I'm not really interested in more PT (which hasn't really done squat) or even prolotherapy, especially if there's some potential tearing that's causing the pain.

Any opinions out there? What would you do in this situation?

Anyone care to share their racing plans here? I'd love to hear some happy news.

Torrington Road Race 2011

Geoff: Nice race yesterday. 32:05 has got to be a PR, no?

It's nice to see that Bill Borla is still running 6:44 miles at the age of 71. Wow.

Wish I could have been there healthy this year. Maybe next.

Wishing the rain would stop

I was hoping to do another long ride today, but the rain has killed those plans.

Yesterday, I biked into New Haven--it's about a 15-mile ride--and stopped off at the farmer's market in Wooster Square for some apples and a sunflower. The sunflower was for a colleague's 9-year old daughter, who is in the hospital recovering from an appendectomy. Unfortunately, the sunflower died in my backpack and never made it to the poor girl.

Later in the day, Jessica and I bounced around the local trails. I did a bit of running, which felt pretty good. After dinner, we walked down to the beach and reminisced about the good training we did last winter.

Tomorrow, I am hoping to hear from Dr. Boyer about my MRI. If it looks ok to him, then I think I will start prolotherapy soon. Boyer recommends 3 prolotherapy sessions, once every three weeks. Insurance doesn't pay, so I'll be looking at a $600 bill. At this point, whatever.

I can always count on good music like this to pick me up. We're looking forward to seeing these guys at Mountain Park in Holyoke, Mass. on Sept. 25th.

Did I Mention that I'm Pumped to Have Finally Learned of the Injury to my Right Leg?

4 othopedist visits (2 different doctors at 2 different clinics), 1 MRI, 5 PT visits, 11 chiropractor visits, 1 osteopath visit and thousands of $$$ later, I finally know what is causing the pain in my right knee. It's my meniscus and/or the little coronary ligaments that attach the meniscus to the leg. I'm amped.

However, I was stunned to learn that my hamstring tendons look perfect on ultrasound (no inflammation/fluid, scarring...no tendinosis!). Everyone was tellling me, hamstring, hamstring, hamstring. It's hamstring tendinitis. It's hamstring tendinosis. It takes 100 years to heal. Blah blah blah. But you can't challenge a stubborn, arrogant doctor.

All along, I have been saying that I had a gut feeling that it wasn't hamstring related (cite: Rant).

It Never Ends

I had a visit with Dr. Boyer this morning. He checked me out and then wheeled in the ultrasound machine. On ultrasound, my hamstring tendons looked perfect (i.e., no tendinosis), but I might have a medial mensicus tear and/or tearing of the coronary ligaments that attach the mensicus to the leg. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my MRI, so now I've gotta have it mailed to him. Depending on what he sees on the MRI, I have three options: 1) prolotherapy on coronary ligaments; 2) PT to strengthen up joint; or 3) get another MRI. If the therapy doesn't work and a second MRI is negative, then I'll have to get the knee scoped. But what I really hope happens is that my knee/leg contines to get better or that they'll just scope my knee and fix the tear. I don't want to do anymore therapy.

I ran for 20 consecutive minutes last night in the pouring rain. I had some very minor pain/achiness to start and then it subsided. I guess it still feels off, too. At least the cycling isn't too painful.