Hedgehogs and joints

Well I logged in to blog, and read my last post to remind myself what kind of rubbish I had been ranting about and got all confused. I sounded particularly happy in that post. Which must have jinxed everything. Because the subsequent runs I tried to complete after that post were cut short or in fact, not even started, following my complete inability to mask a stabbing and sharp pain in my right knee.

Given that I have dislocated my knee seven or more times, I know a thing or two about pain. I know what it feels like when you don't know that your patella has moved sideways and in a bid to make things better, you twist ligaments and tendons round the joint. I know what it's like to be swinging into bed and the lower half of my leg completely disconnects, when I'm on my own, have to call for help and am wearing bad pants. I often have to mask the pain of my knee being undislocated so that whoever is helping me can concentrate on the job at hand and not be distracted by my screams. So for my knee to be in so much pain that I couldn't hide it is quite extreme.

I was ordered by the SRO that I was not to run this weekend. I tried to swim, kicking from the hip while pretending to be an Olympic dolphin. Boring. I came home and surfed the internet for cheap MRI scans and private health insurance. I was Very Worried.

On Monday I saw Magic Galina with trepidation. She took once look at my leg and had me all sized up. Since I had been plagued with horrible pompholyx on my right foot, I had been limping for about six weeks. I had been flopping around in converse boots (bad for feet!) and not doing special exercises with my trusty hedgehog. This had resulted in my foot being not quite right, pronating or was it suppinating - basically rolling in. As you know, the hip bone is connected to the toe bone so my ankle rolled in, my tendon down my calf rolled in, my knee (that floppy joint) rock and rolled in and my quad rolled in, bringing my newly formed glute behind it. It's a wonder I wasn't running in circles. Of course, this is all pretty indiscernible to the civilian eye but to a trained professional I have a wiggle that won't quit.

The cure is a couple of sessions being massaged, unrolled and acupunctured, followed by a lot of foot rolling on the hedgehog.

I've done one week of "cure" and went for a 13 km run. I could really feel everything rolling on the right leg while my left leg felt like Haile Gerbresalassie. When I stopped at 10km due to the pain I couldn't get the right foot going without some waddly walking.

However I am on the hedgehog with vigour and hope it's all going to be alright on the night.

Stay tuned...

No hedgehogs were harmed in this post.