Preparation H

update: First of all, there’s a reason these posts never saw the light of day. Keep reading, you’ll see. Second, my ITB issues are gone. I haven’t run with the strap since the Lake Placid Half Marathon (race report to follow). What healed me was 2.5 to 3 weeks of complete rest. I never did get the MRI, btw.

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Left leg/hip/knee still giving me trouble, so I’ve started trying to find someone who can diagnose me. Turns out this is a lot more difficult than I thought.

May 8th – See a sports medicine doctor. Nice guy. Not the first guy I wanted to see. Actually, not even on my top 5 list of people I wanted to see, but after searching our health insurance provider’s website, this is one of the only guys in our area that will take our insurance. Thanks, Blue Cross. I give him the rundown. After 3 or 4 miles, I start having pain in my knee that gets increasingly worse as I continue running. If I stop running, the pain goes away. Both are telltale signs of ITB syndrome. I also get some tingling on the bottom of my feat. That is not generally associated with an ITB problem, and he mentions if I’ve had any lower back pain. Since incorporating some core exercises I have noticed a little bit of stiffness but nothing too painful. He tests my ITB. It’s tight. He tests my hamstrings. They are also tight.

This guy is nice, but he’s unwilling to answer the question that I really need answered. Basically I want to know if I lighten up the training, can I still run the marathon in Lake Placid (it’s about 5 weeks away) or will I risk injuring myself severely by running on it when it still hurts.

“Well, I wouldn’t say not to, but I would recommend you rest. And take Aleve. Have you ever tried Aleve?”

This guy’s claim to fame is that he’s the assistant team doc for the New York Liberty. I think that’s what he said. If not, it was something equally pathetic. I small tear rolled down my cheek. I wiped it off before he saw.

He sends me down the hall to have x-rays taken.

Have x-rays taken of my knee, hip and spine. He looks at them and says that I’m a little arthritic in my left knee. I didn’t know that. This is the first problem I’ve ever had with my knee.

I go home and examine the x-rays myself. (They’re all computerized now, did you know that? No more “films.” Now it’s all on the computers and tubes and so on.) I notice something that the doctor either didn’t see or was too scared to tell me. This is a picture of my pelvis. Check out it out. Right there. Do you see it?

They say deep inside most athletes lies the heart of a lion. Well, deep inside Kevin Hodge (specifically nearer to his pelvic girdle) lies the disembodied head of a kitty.

Besides prescribing Aleve and charging my insurance $600, he tells me that I should try some physical therapy. “Any place that’s convenient will do,” says he. So I find a place called the Bay Ridge Sports Medicine. Sounds appropriate, right?

The next week, I go in for my first physical therapy session. There are 5 tables in the front half of the room, a few machines near the back. This place is no great shakes. It looks a little like the basement den just off the garage at your uncle’s house. The cool uncle, though. Not the uptight one. My cool aunt/uncle had a lava lamp and a kinda sand/oil/water mixed together thing that would move and make cool designs. Completely fascinating.

This place is packed. There are at least 7 patients, 2 interns and the guy. The doctor (but he isn’t a doctor, so I’m not entirely sure if I call him by his first name or not). I decide to do the first name.

“Trent,” I say, (his name’s not really Trent) “I’m having an issue with my left leg. Seems like it might be an IT band problem, I think. Also the bottom of my left foot tingles when I run.”

“Okay,” says Trent. “Let’s try some stuff.” I get on the table and he moves my leg around a bunch. Then he jams his thumb into my kneecap and I knee him in the balls.

“Boy, your hamstrings are really tight. And you’re a little arthritic in your left knee. Hop off the table. Let me see you touch your toes.”

Long story short, I can’t touch my toes. I can’t remember the last time I was able to. He tells me that I really need an MRI or else I could be chasing this issue for years.