We can rebuild her…

I went to the orthopedic group today.  I find myself in a weird place mentally after this visit.

First off, the doc was a complete arrogant asshole with virtually no empathy.  The good news is that I felt CLINICALLY he definitely knew his stuff.  But geez, a little care and understanding would have been nice!!!  Do doctors generally take a class on where they learn to think they are better than everyone else???

We started with the hamstring.  He pulled, twisted, prodded, bent, and otherwise manipulated my entire leg in every direction imaginable.  And?  A severe strain.  That's it.  Nothing more or less glamorous then that.  Which means taking it easy, low impact activities, letting it heal.  He said that the hamstring is a huge muscle and "trainers don't talk about recovery in days, they talk about weeks and months."

He said the yoga, stretching and weight lifting is good - in the ONLY compliment he would give me today, he said that I was doing everything 100% right and that's all I can do.

Now on to the Achilles area - the diagnosis is retrocalcaneal bursitis.  He said that he has only personally dealt with about 5 cases in his career.  However, in looking it up, it is apparently a common runner's issue.

He wants to take the most conservative approach to begin with.  That is phonophoresis.  Basically I go to a physical therapist and they use an ultrasound to drive medication - in this case cortisone - into the area.  The cortisone will reducing the swelling and with several treatments will theoretically heal me.

So the news could have been much, much worse.  Yet I don't feel better right now.  The doctor's office will contact my insurance who will hopefully pay for this and then I make a PT appointment.

You would think that knowing what’s wrong and that it is not dabilitating - in BOTH areas would be a welcome relief.  But as I sit here I feel almost lost.

This is my incredibly busy week at work.  But I am on vacation next week.  So I want to put this in perspective, relax, and then begin treatments and hopefully get back into a steady routine which I feel has eluded me for the past month!