My knee injury has been lingering awhile, so I finally got to see a physical therapist yesterday about it, to see exactly what was wrong. Basically, I still can't bend my knee into a deep squat, and I can't kneel on my knee.
My PT, Nicole, surprised me by asking me right away what my derby name is! It turns out, she's a derby fan, and she was excited about me coming in because it was in my file that I'm a derby skater (because that's how I got injured). It was really great that I happened to get an appointment with someone who is familiar with my sport and who has an appreciation for the kind of impact and injuries that result. (Of COURSE I invited her to our bout.)
After a few assessments, she determined that there's nothing WRONG wrong with my knee (like, my ligaments are fine and all that) - my IT band and the surrounding muscles in my knee have healed really tight and my knee is out of alignment with the rest of me. My homework is to foam-roll a whole bunch and to do some strengthening exercises to get my other muscles to pull my knee back where it's supposed to be.
Even though it may take a few weeks before I really start to notice any improvement, I'm really happy about this, because I now feel like I have some modicum of control over the situation. Before, I had no idea what was wrong and no idea what to do about it. Basically, all I could do was just sit around and WAIT for my knee to feel better. Which sucks - I am the worst when it comes to waiting and being patient. But now I feel like a little of it is back in my hands (or, rather, legs), and I can actually be proactive about healing and getting back on track.
Small victory, but I'll take it!
My PT, Nicole, surprised me by asking me right away what my derby name is! It turns out, she's a derby fan, and she was excited about me coming in because it was in my file that I'm a derby skater (because that's how I got injured). It was really great that I happened to get an appointment with someone who is familiar with my sport and who has an appreciation for the kind of impact and injuries that result. (Of COURSE I invited her to our bout.)
After a few assessments, she determined that there's nothing WRONG wrong with my knee (like, my ligaments are fine and all that) - my IT band and the surrounding muscles in my knee have healed really tight and my knee is out of alignment with the rest of me. My homework is to foam-roll a whole bunch and to do some strengthening exercises to get my other muscles to pull my knee back where it's supposed to be.
Even though it may take a few weeks before I really start to notice any improvement, I'm really happy about this, because I now feel like I have some modicum of control over the situation. Before, I had no idea what was wrong and no idea what to do about it. Basically, all I could do was just sit around and WAIT for my knee to feel better. Which sucks - I am the worst when it comes to waiting and being patient. But now I feel like a little of it is back in my hands (or, rather, legs), and I can actually be proactive about healing and getting back on track.
Small victory, but I'll take it!