A change of plans

My recovery from knee and hip pain has hit a setback. For the last several days, I have been experiencing aching on the side of my leg from my hip to my mid calf. After 10 weeks of physical therapy I was hoping to see some progress by now but I am getting worse.

I was going to throw in the towel on physical therapy, but, after reading Brittany’s post today, I decided to change things up.

When I explained this new pain issue, my therapist examined me and concluded that I probably have a sciatic nerve impingement. I need to stop tightening the muscles around the nerve and free it up instead. So we decided to drop certain exercises that were intended to strengthen my outer left hip and left butt cheek. Instead I’ll be doing nerve flossing. This involves gently moving my left leg out and back from a sitting position. I’ve done this before for other nerve problems. I don’t recall if it worked but at least I won’t be making pain worse. Also, based on another video I found, using a lacrosse ball or a foam roller to knead the muscles in my left leg is probably not helping so I drop that for now.

Another thing my therapist wants me to do is back off my bike riding. Eek! We talked about taking a couple days off each week a few appointments ago. Now she wants me to ride every other day.

Today, the weatherman cooperated. It was gross outside. I went to the gym and did some upper body weight lifting for the first time in a while. When I got home my leg was still killing me so I went to bed, laid on my back, and did a body scan meditation. Of course, as is often the case, I fell asleep. I woke up without any pain.

Hey wait a minute.

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Zzzzz.