FINALLY Some Improvement!

I can finally report that after 6 weeks, I had a week where my knee has taken a giant leap forward. More importantly, had I not been pushed by my doctor/friend/client Dr. Petros Fragiskakis, I would still be whining and bitching for another week.

Until this last week, my knee would feel better for a couple of days and then feel like shit again. I would think it was getting better and then it would be back to the same or even worse for a day or two. Sometimes I could explain it while other times there seemed to be no explanation, at all. Example: Sitting down on a bench with heavy dumbbells to do dumbbell presses is going to irritate a bad knee. DUH. Other times, I would wake up with pain and for no good reason. As far as I know, you can't sleep on a knee the wrong way. And keep your jokes to yourself.

This week was different because my friend Dr. Fragiskakis insisted on meeting me at the gym to do what he could to help me out.  He then did more work two days later and it was that session that set things right. 

I am always skeptical of methods or practices that I am not familiar with. Years ago I avoided the chiropractor for my back because I was convinced it wasn't going to do anything. It saved my back. I have avoided aggressive massage in the past and when I had it done, it worked incredibly well. I avoided Graston work on my left lat because I did not for one second think it would help to "open up" my lat more on that side. It worked. You would think that my dumbass would learn but... NOOOOO. 

I let the doctor do his work but it is complicated because I have both patellofemoral pain syndrome and a low-grade sprain of my LCL.  I am not only convinced (as is he) that the LCL sprain is related to the existing PTPS, but that both the LCL and PTPS are also related to my glute tear from last July. The hip injury last July was on the left side and likely caused my right side to "take over" or do more work and the knee took the brunt of it. 

The Doc did Graston work on my IT band and the outside of my knee and though Graston is not typically painful, this session sucked bad. I will admit it. I felt like a baby because holy shit did it hurt. I was not very optimistic after this caused a lot of inflammation because even walking on it after the session was not very comfortable. 

He then applied kinesio-tape and I was thinking, "this shit isn't going to do a damn thing." After applying it, he told me to walk on it and I was blown away by how much better it felt. And understand that this was after the graston that caused so much inflammation.

But wait, that's not it. There was one more thing I had to do that I did not think would work for shit: ice for 20 minutes, off for 60 minutes and repeat as often as possible.

I can't emphasize enough that I am not a doctor and that I REALLY need to be more trusting because the difference in just two days was insane. I feel like I made more progress this week than at any point in the last 6 weeks. I get retaped again tomorrow and will retape every 4-5 days.

I was also staying away from stretching because of the LCL. I thought the angle of the knee for stretching my piriformis and glutes, etc., was going to bother my LCL so I wasn't stretching. I forced myself to stretch (after Doctor's orders) and this helped considerably, as well. It should be noted that after favoring one leg for 6 weeks, your lower back doesn't feel very good due to having the hips cocked and out of whack. 

I will add one more thing -- like icing on the cake -- tomorrow and that is meloxicam. I have had 2 clients report that it has wiped out chronic tendon pain in their knees in only 7-10 days. I don't know if this will work the same for me but I am going to start it and see for myself. Even if it doesn't work that well, I am already so much further along than I have been since this injury started that it won't matter. If it does help, I could return to light training even sooner.

I have already not trained quads for 6 weeks so I am not trying to rush back to training them. I am taking my time and I am going to make sure they are 100% ready to go. That being said, it is very possible that I could be doing light weight leg sessions in as little as 2 weeks.

The biggest lesson learned here is that as smart as we think we are -- as bodybuilders -- about the body, doctors are smarter than we are. That's hard for some to admit but not for me. I'm a dumbass.

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