Rant

I'm receiving a lot of conflicting advice. The PT says to stretch the shit out of the tendinitis. Jess's PA co-worker said that stretching is the worst thing you can do for tendinitis. It did, in fact, feel quite a bit worse after stretching.

I'm reluctant to go on and on about this, but I feel that I must put my thoughts to words. As I've said before, my gut has always told me that it is not tendinitis--whether it's something more serious, I do not know. Because, in the decade that I've been running, I've had only one bout of tendinitis--caused, without question, by a more serious, underlying injury--I do not believe that I'm prone to tendinitis, unless there's something else going on in the background.

Furthermore, given that I was very well-conditioned (i.e., in the best shape of my life) and the injury presented the very next day, after a very hard, hilly effort of 17+ miles, I'm even more inclined to think that it is not tendinitis.

Before I even saw a doctor, I ruled out a knee injury (e.g., a meniscal tear), because I could bear my full weight on the injured leg and even do single-legged squats ad nauseam, without a hitch. I would think that a serious knee injury would make that type of exercise quite painful.

As I've previously reported, both doctors essentially diagnosed me with hamstring tendinitis. I say essentially because the first doctor wasn't quite sure if it was tendinitis or bursitis but was satisfied that it, whatever it was, would go away with the prescribed treatment of just "cut-back-your-activity." That treatment did not work. The second doctor did not know what to make of the injury, so he prescribed an MRI, which turned out to be normal. At my first visit, he didn't even consider tendinitis until I told him that my previous doctor diagnosed me with it. Then he jumped on the bandwagon. To me, that's piss-poor care, yet I'm still under his care. And now I'm not particularly happy with the care I'm receiving from his clinic's PTs. See note above. Talk about frustrating.

At my last PT visit, the PT told me that if it's not tendinitis, the only other thing it could be is a meniscal tear. But, what about a pulled or strained tendon or an avulsion? (IT HURTS A LOT WHEN I STRETCH THE TENDON!) It's not likely an avulsion, as such an injury would have shown up on an MRI, as I understand it. A pulled or strained tendon probably would not have shown up on an MRI, but this diagnosis was never considered by any doctor I've ever seen. I'm trying to be a good patient, and to provide all the details, but I'm not getting the feedback I expect. I have yet to see a doctor that has seemed to consider all possibilities (unlike Dr. Reach, who fixed my left foot--the most amazing case of doctoring I've ever seen). That's pretty sad, given the $200+ I'm paying/5-minute visit.

Back to the way the injury happened: it happened suddenly. It didn't happen over any period of time any longer than 24 hours. It was at it's worse the day after I went hard. It did not get progressively worse, as I think tendinitis typically does, as I continued to train. To me, that sounds like a pull or strain or tear of something. What's more, I ran a marathon without any pain. And I wasn't any worse for the wear. So, what the hell?

The problem with doctors who aren't accustomed to treating serious athletes (even though they claim to be experts in sports' injuries)--or who aren't serious athletes themselves--is that they are not able to understand what you're going through, despite your best effort to convey the problem (or so it seems). To find an empathetic doctor, who really understands, is unbelievably difficult. However, what sucks, is that, at times, we're at the mercy of doctors to help fix us. In the end, I realize, the body fixes itself. But, sometimes, we just need to be pointed in the right direction, but no one has seemed able to do that for me yet. I realize that things could be a lot worse, but I'm not asking for a miracle. I'm simply asking for a definitive diagnosis with a clearly defined plan of treatment, and I'll do all the rest. I can promise you that.