Spent an hour being tortured by the lovely Rebecca yesterday. Despite the pain and torment however she did come up with a plausible diagnosis of my dodgy knees ... [boring diagnosis alert] ... which is that due to skeletal misalignment of my legs, I am splay footed which has caused my knees to turn inward and my illotibial bands to be too tight, forcing excessive pressure on my knee joints and cartilage. The left one, in particular, has some degeneration but the
good news is that she doesn't think this can't be overcome, and that therefore I should be able to continue running! Yea! It will however require a long and
arduous (my opinion, not hers) exercise regime.
It was really nice to have someone say "yep, that shouldn't be a problem" rather than the doctor's "oh no, you should stop running - and that knee will need replacing in a few years". Admittedly was my GP's idea to go to a sports physio in the first place - something I should have done over a year ago really
[Rant alert] Rebecca was also surprisingly forthright on a couple of issues of interest to the runner. Here's a couple of rough
for instances: I mentioned pilates, which she damned with faint praise, effectively saying that it was worth doing in an holistic kind of way, but only after you've done all the
worthwhile stretching and strength exercises prescribed by your physio. Fair 'nuff I thought. And on the subject of shoes, I was bemoaning the fact that every shoe salesperson has a different idea about what shoes I should be using. What she then said about shoes and feet was so knowledgable and
sensible that it made me think that next time I buy shoes, I'll have her go with me - expensive perhaps, but it makes sense. My wife is a 'cello teacher, and goes with her students when they buy an instrument to make sure they get the right "fit". Why let some shoe shop kid with a bias toward bigger commissions and/or a quick sale fob you off with an inferior shoe? [End of rant].
But on the whole, a very positive day. My health fund even coughed up for most of the physio's fee (well, slightly over half of it anyhow). Now if I could just get them to pay for my shoes as well...
January Jollies
