You know the thing about old injuries coming back to bite you later on in life? Remember this sprained ankle from September last year? No, of course, you don’t, be honest… You have your own traumas and life issues to deal with. Well, I was never able to forget this terrible injury.
For months, this thing was painful. It still is. Not painful in the just-sprained kind of agony, but a sharp twinge every so often if I move my foot the wrong way while working, walking, or exercising. It’s more than six months since I turned to go inside and collapsed in pain (after watching the boys swing around in the almond tree all morning with a running chainsaw and not even suffering a scratch), and now this old injury is causing even more havoc in my life. The tendon was damaged and it’s taking a really long time to heal.
About a month or so ago, I started feeling stiffness and soreness in my left gluteus maximus and thigh. It felt like nerve pain. In certain yoga positions, my toes would get tingly. After cooking for a day, my hip wanted to move out and my thighs would scream in pain. Normal activities have become a pain lottery. It might or might not end in agony. At first, I thought what most people would think: I’m a little stiff from doing new yoga poses I’m not used to and from riding my bicycle everywhere now that I’m getting stronger…
Nope. That’s not it. After an excruciating week, where I could barely move in any direction and working in the kitchen became endless days of pure suffering, I went to see a physiotherapist. She determined that because of the sprained right ankle, the left side of my body had compensated my gait to alleviate the pain and pressure on my right foot when I walked and then never returned to “normal” after it began to gradually heal. Those left hip and thigh muscles became stiff to the point of rigidity and then so rigid they became painful. She mentioned piriformis syndrome. Because the line of pain also follows the sciatic nerve lines, sometimes the pain crosses over.
Piriformis syndrome causes pain or numbness in the butt, hip, or upper leg. It occurs when the piriformis muscle, located behind the gluteus maximus, presses on the sciatic nerve. The condition is caused by injury, swelling, muscle spasms, or scar tissue in the piriformis. This was probably caused by those left-side muscles kicking in for my injured right foot. It’s more pain than numbness, but numbness would be a welcome symptom at this point.
After stripping off and laying on her massage table, the therapist set about finding all kinds of myofascial trigger points in my left glute and thigh. She would press lightly on a point. I would scream. And we’d go from there. Light pressure, harder pressure, full pressure. She worked gently, finding dozens of painful points from my lower back and hip to my knee. She worked for over an hour on just that part of my body, loosening all the knots as much as she could. I was able to ride my bike home without wincing once. I also have homework that includes a tennis ball to apply light pressure and a wine bottle to roll the trigger points on, not to drink…
We’re doing another therapy session next week to work on the muscles and knots. It’s still a bit painful today, but I’m off to a yoga class in half an hour to stretch and loosen up some more muscles. Just FYI, I didn’t write this story for pity. It’s information. Until yesterday, I didn’t know one serious injury could cause another serious injury over time if the initial problem wasn’t addressed. Maybe you didn’t either—or maybe you’re way smarter and knew all this years ago. Until it began hurting, I didn’t even know there was a problem. It’s something to look out for in the future, making sure we correct our postures and work our muscles after an injury, even if we don’t feel pain. I’ll keep you posted how it goes. In the meantime, be well and try not to fall over…