That's how I have felt the past week. I have been riding my bicycle since last September and bragging about my increased muscle strength and my serious excitement over my increased ability to walk. Being the cautious person that I am, I have slowly built up my time and distance to be rewarded with increased strength, endurance, range of motion, and looseness of joints. I have had a perverse enjoyment of listening to my heavy breathing while pumping away with reckless abandon. (I have also been able to eat Girl Scout cookies and still lose weight, but I probably shouldn't admit to that.)
Then... after 6 to 8 weeks of noticing that my left knee (the one I have given 6 more months to fully heal) has been whispering to me that there is some stiffness and soreness and now, actual discomfort with flexion and extension, I begin to pay attention. When the right knee is also a little stiff, I'm thinking seriously that maybe something isn't right. Then last week, I was "bicycling" in the pool, and it actually hurt for probably 7 to 8 minutes. I'm thinking, "the pool, REALLY? I am hurting in the POOL?" I hardly hurt in the pool right after surgery. Now I know something is amiss, and it is time to make an appointment with my doctor.
It will be 2 weeks before I can see him. I get on the internet and start studying the anatomy of the knee to see if I can figure out where the problem is. I localize the spots, and start looking for information for problems in that area and come up with the iliotibial (IT) band. Runners and cyclists tend to have problems with the IT band. Great. After watching a video for diagnosing it, I perform the maneuver on myself, and as far as I am concerned, it is positive. There is another diagnostic maneuver that I cannot do on myself, so I will have to wait on the doctor. So after reading about treatments for said condition, I with great regret, lay off all activity related to my lower extremities, ice my knees frequently, and take NSAIDS. Physical therapy will have to wait until I see the doctor. The suggested time for complete rest was 5 days. This is really making me nervous. I have worked so hard, and now it looks like I have caused this malady to myself. That is not fair. How am I supposed to know what is too much when I have been so careful to slowly build up? To have the one thing that has exponentially boosted my rehab to now be a problem is aggravating. To say I am frustrated is an understatement.
So I call my physical therapist to ask him what I can be doing before my appointment with my doctor in now 10 days. I love my physical therapist. He's going to see me today unofficially because he says I am probably 90% correct in my diagnosis, and we really need to get those quads relaxed. He also told me that the treatment is very painful. Joy. If he's telling that to someone who rehabbed two knees at the same time, it must be REALLY bad.
2 hours later-- it was pretty painful, but not anything I can't handle. It is the IT band. The simple explanation is that this band goes all the way from the hip area to the knee over the quads. As my quads have gotten bigger, this band has been irritated and pulled tightly over my muscle. The muscle is all lumpy and thus very tender, and it must be stretched. So I had to go buy a rolling pin to roll up and down over the IT band until I get this from Amazon.
According to my physical therapist, I can still ride, but I need to stretch before and after my ride. He also said that if I'm not much improved when I see the doctor, a little cortisone may be in my future. It won't be long before I will be well equipped to open my own PT gym!
