Hamstring Treatment - Day 9

I'd chatted with physiotherapist Craig at a Lions event last night and he really didn't know if me riding my horse would be a problem or not. He knows that he would be stiff -- but he's not a rider. For me, it probably wouldn't be an issue, so we left it that I could ride as long as there was no significant pain. To Tori and I went for a hack -- me on Gamble (who hadn't been ridden in 7 weeks) and Tori on Joey. The hack was uneventful and when we returned, I wandered around the arena with Gamble for a bit. So clearly there was no significant pain, or I would have bailed on the riding far sooner.

Hamstring Treatment - Day 7

Craig Irwin, who has a physiotherapy clinic in Seaforth, but who lives in Lucan, swung by our house tonight. Apparently, most of the people who he sees with hamstring injuries don't have as much black and blue bruising on the back of their leg as I do.

Craig did some ultrasound therapy on my leg and some massage work, plus gave me an anti-inflamatory cream (5x per day) plus some exercises: Active stretching of the leg to straighten it out throughout the day, plus 4 or 5 times a day doing the following: Lie on back with left (good) leg straight out and right (bad) thigh up at 90 degree angle to the floor. Lift my lower leg up to the point of pain (no further) and hold for 20 seconds. Rest for 30 seconds. Repeat for a total of 5 reps.

Jenny should do some other massage work on the leg to get the blood moving around and getting absorbed, rather than having the blood just sitting there turning into a gel within the leg.

I'm going to do the cream and exercises at 7, 11, 3, 7 and 11 pm. He said no other exercise on the leg (i.e. running) that causes pain for 3 weeks from the date of injury, since if I do too much too soon, I'll end up ripping the repairs that the body has already made

Hamstring Injury Recuperation - Days 4 to 6

I've been at work the last 3 days and while the hamstring has been causing me occassional bouts of painful cramps and a fair bit of shifting around to try to get comfortable, I've been able to get work done. Today I drove into Hamilton and back (4 hours on the road) and while there was some pain, it was definitely bearable. I'd keep the car in cruise control most of the time on the highway -- but keep my right leg ready to hit the brakes if necessary. One thing that is different is that I've been getting many more leg cramps in my _lower_ leg in the past couple of days -- both in the right and left legs. Must be something to do with the tension with my hamstring in my injured leg, I guess, although it really doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Hamstring Injury Recuperation - Day 3

Today we flew back from the resort. It was a long day -- we left the resort at 9 am and didn't board the plane until 1:10 pm. A fair bit of standing around in line and then sitting around, so trying to get comfortable wasn't easy. And on the plane trip home, I had an aisle seat so I could stand up and stretch my legs without disturbing other passengers. Getting out of my seat was fairly painful, still, but standing felt good. Lots of walking when we got into Toronto and lots of standing there too. Over 1.5 hours from the time we landed to the time we were in our car heading home. Not happy -- most of that time was standing around waiting for the luggage. Jenny drove home -- we aren't comfortable with my ability to "hit the brakes" quickly if I need too, yet. Jenny took another photo of my leg. The entire back of the leg is purple, now, with dark purple at the top-inside of my thigh, some dark spots on my butt, and some darker areas near the back of my knee. In short, its quite a mess.

2 Days after Injury	4 Days after Injury	5 Days after Injury

Hamstring Injury Recuperation - Day 2

Got through a second night with my hamstring injury relatively well. Everything still hurts and my leg feels as tight as a rock, but I'm able to find positions when trying to sleep where there is minimal pain. And I can switch positions relatively pain-free as well. But sitting down to go to the bathroom is particularly painful.

I read up on the various degrees of hamstring injury assessment and recuperation at SportsInjuryClinic.net. My range of motion of my left (good) leg is about 80 degrees when lying on my back and lifting my leg up in the air relatively straight. On my right (torn hamstring) leg, the range of motion is about 50 degrees, Jenny says.

There is no question that I have a grade 3 tear, though:

From http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/back/hamstrings/hamstringstrain.htm :

Strains are graded 1, 2 or 3 depending on severity. Grade 1 consists of minor tears within the muscle. A grade 2 is a partial tear in the muscle and grade 3 is a severe or complete rupture of the muscle.

Grade 1: What does it feel like?

* May have tightness in the posterior thigh.
* Probably able to walk normally however will be aware of some discomfort
* Minimal swelling.
* Lying on front and trying to bend the knee against resistance probably won't produce much pain.

Grade 2: What does it feel like?

* Gait will be affected-limp may be present .
* May be associated with occasional sudden twinges of pain during activity.
* May notice swelling.
* Pressure increases pain.
* Flexing the knee against resistance causes pain.
* Might be unable to fully straighten the knee.

Grade 3: What does it feel like?

* Walking severely affected- may need walking aids such as crutches
* Severe pain- particularly during activity such as knee flexion.
* Noticeable swelling visible immediately.


Evening Report: It appears that I'm already on the mend a bit. Walking is a bit easier. I'm able to negotiate stairs a bit easier as well, as I think ahead of time (usually) what purpose my "good" leg should serve in going up or going down the stairs. Everything is still tight, though. We've stopped with the ice, so now my recuperation is based on rest and Scotch -- although I'm experimenting with Grand Marnier, wine, beer and margueritas as well. I've now developed a fairly significant bruise at the top-inside of my right thigh. Jenny took a photo to show its progress.

Hamstring Injury Recuperation - Day 1

I emailed my vet and running coach to let him know the news that I'd torn my hamstring on the trapeze and to get some advice on recuperation. Here was Brian's reply:

- - - - - -
Great news- you'll have an awesome bruise a few days after it stops hurting!

My medical advice based on years of experience drinking-just wanted you to know it wasn't based on expertise- for a severe tear rather than a "tweak" is:

1. Absolute rest for 10-14 days. Consider walking an extreme sport, anything more IS STUPID. No stretching until walking without pain.

2. Lots of ice, ice and more ice for leg, but none in the Scotch. It ruins it. If it needs ice, drink better Scotch.

3. Ibuprofen is fine, but no need to go nuts. That inflammation is part of the healing response, and no reason to "cover it up" with meds when (a) you're not in training (b) with a bad tear you can take the whole bottle and it isn't going to make it feel great anyway.

4. You can go to Mike the Dr (our personal physician, who is also a cyclist) if you're not sure about the diagnosis.

5. Physio helps your recovery, but would be more important for you if you need to be back faster or if it tore as a result of your desired training (i.e. running). When you have 4 - 5 weeks [until I start formal training for Boston] anyway and it was a result of swinging through the trees in the jungle naked and drunk, I'd just wait to see if you can start to run without pain in 2-3 weeks and go from there.

6. Drink more, worry less.

7. As you alluded to earlier, if it's not getting better there is always another "option" on the table. [Brian is a veterinarian, so the "option" is that he could just put me to sleep.]

- Dr B
- - - - - -

So I took his advice and stopped putting ice in my Scotch, and always asked for the better Scotch (they had 8 year old or 12 year old -- so I'd ask for the latter) at the bar. We kept putting ice on it. I stopped taking ibuprofen. Limited walking and no stretching, although a certain amount is simply going to happen by moving around and trying to get comfortable.

We took the crutches back to the nurse. It was actually more painful using the crutches, now, than it was shuffling/hobbling around on my own.

Severe Hamstring Injury

All this week, Jenny and I have been doing the trapeze stuff at the resort. We've done trapeze at Club Med resorts for the past 12 to 14 years, and the Breezes resort setup is identical. Today, though, something went wrong with one of my trips. I was doing a "Planche" (which I'd done several times -- probably over 30 times over the course of my trapezing) and on the first swing out I went to get my legs into "first position" -- which is basically to get my legs up and over the bar. For whatever reason, though, I got one leg barely over the bar, and the other one was hanging down. On the swing back, then, the centrifical force of the hanging leg flung it out even further, thereby forcing me into a "splits" -- which my body is definitely not used to doing. I heard 3 "rips" in my leg as I swung back towards the board and I knew something was seriously wrong. I got down to the safety net and tried to haul myself towards the place where we drop down to the ground -- but every pull with my hands along the net was unbelievably painful. The circus team crew got me off the net and to the ground and asked if I wanted the nurse (to which I replied in the affirmative). At this point, it felt a bit like I might faint, so I sat down as we waited for the nurse. Then the circus crew transported me to a chair in the shade. What was particularly weird was that my vision had changed to monochrome -- very bright and dark, but no colours. Eventually, though, by the time the nurse arrived, I could see colours. The nurse checked my blood pressure and pulse and everything there was fine. I had two ibuprofen and then I was wheeled into the nurses office and she put some (horse?) linament on my leg. Some of the linament hit "the boys", which wasn't particularly pleasant. Then she put some ice water on a compress and wrapped my leg. I was told no alcohol for the rest of the day (which we eventually ignored, although I limited my intake), and to keep putting ice on the back of the leg. The resort supplied a shower curtain and extra sheet so that we could fix up the bed in our room to allow me to keep ice on it during the night. I had 2 ibuprofen every 6 hours or so. I was supplied crutches by the nurses office to let me get around, but every step -- even with the crutches -- was painful.

So, of course, the reason this non-running event made it into my running blog is (a) hamstring tears are very common in runners and (b) now I get to try to repair this injury and get in marathon shape within 5 months for Boston. So this is going to be interesting.