14 months of pain

On February 11 2015 02:04 hymn wrote:
Hey! So I've got no one else to tell about this and I thought I might as well share it here. Someone might find it useful. Although you're all just a bunch of young guys and girls and trauma is, hopefully, not a part of your life. Anyway, read on. It's a positive experience, for me at least.

It started back in early December 2013. It was cold in Bulgaria, unusually cold for that early in the month, like -12 C in the morning. One day me and the wife had left our then small child at the kindergarten and I was on my way back home. The way is through a nice park, the nicest in Sofia, I believe.

I had been training bodybuilding for like 7-8 months, I was feeling good about myself, never had I suffered serious injury and I thought this was all reserved for other folk.

Then I had the dumbest idea ever. To do 12 sprints in the middle of the unusually cold winter. To top it all off, I almost skipped warming up. Also, I was dressed bad for the occasion. I was in sport clothes but nothing to keep me warm if I had warmed up. For the warm up I jogged for about 5 minutes, did some lame stretches too. Then I set my phone stopwatch to 30 seconds rounds and I started sprinting. Sprinting is a good explosive workout. When done wrong it leads to serious pain. After 5 laps I felt pain, up high in the right hip region. I called it a day and went home.

Through the day the pain never subsided. I went to bed in pain that night. I remember I couldn't raise my right leg when on my back. In the morning I woke up with my leg stiff, I couldn't move my hip joint without excruciating pain. It was time to go to the doctor.

The doctor who happened to be a family friend, had me x-rayed. His comment on the x ray was that my joint is fine in the way that there is no luxation. He prescribed me rest and anti inflammatory pills. I had my pills for 2 weeks, also my rest. The pain subsided, my movement was not so restricted. But I remember I was limping all winter. And I thought it would go away at some time in 2014.

By April the pain was still there, just localized in the region that is the most right of the hip, just beneath the pelvic bone and up the thigh bone. I went to another doctor, this time a know specialist in sport trauma, he is treating some football players and is kind of famous. He looked me, basically said the same thing like his colleague – it's a soft tissue problem, bones are fine, rest and it will be fine. By the way I had not done any leg exercises for those 5 months, only upper body and I was beginning to feel pissed about it. The pain wasn't sharp, it was like 2-3 on a 1 to 10 scale and it was dull. Like an annoying headache, constantly there, not going away from pills (so I didn't took any), just there and nagging. I thought "fuck that! I am doing whatever exercises I want, pain or no pain!". To my surprise the pain didn't get worse from exercises.

Then another shit hit the fan. At some time in May 2014 my right shoulder started aching. Constantly and for absolutely no reason. I had not suffered trauma or anything, just this throbbing pain in the front of the shoulder. And it was gradually getting worse, to a point where I couldn't lift my daughter when holding her with my right arm only. Then I knew this shit had to go, like whatever the cost, surgery or whatever, I could not live with that crap.

I was despaired from our doctors though and I also have some medical background being a vet, so I got to read literature. I stumbled upon a book called Manual therapy for trigger points. This was the changing moment. In the book it was described how those points are formed when a muscle is over used and how the pain is not where the muscle is but it's somewhere else. In the case of the shoulder if's a trigger point somewhere in the muscle called infraspinatus. It's a small muscle in the lower side of the shoulder blade. When I was reading I only thought "I call bullshit! This doesn't make any sense!". The advice in the book was self management in the form of massage with a hard ball, with the back against a wall. I got a ball and full of suspicion I pressed my infraspinatus against the wall with the ball. I almost collapsed, the pain was so sharp, it felt like a red hot spike pushed through my shoulder, from the muscle to the front of the shoulder. I began screaming "fuckfuckfuckFUCK" in Bulgarian. After a brief rest and with utter caution I succeeded in massaging for a minute or so. I also understood how it happened.

Turned out I had played Sc2 a bit too much without a rest in the spring of 2014. managed to get to high diamond in two seasons without playing Wol and I was happy. In this time though I had worked the small muscle too much and a trigger point had been formed in it.

In a couple of weeks time and a lot of massages it was fine, I was shoulder pain free. The summer passed, we went to the sea for two weeks. I remember that the hip pain was significantly lower when it was warm outside so I didn't think about it that much in the summer. I had accepted it would be there, be a part of my life and that's all there is to it. But when we returned from the sea and Autumn 2014 came the pain intensified.

I also began training the beautiful sport of Muay Thai in October and I got to talk with some of the guys there about the pain. They couldn't do shit about it, of course, but I got connected with another doctor, a joint surgeon from one of the most prestigious hospitals in Bulgaria. I went to meet him and after 5 minutes of clinical examination he said "Yeah, it's pretty bad, you need a small surgery, arthroscopy. Wanna schedule a surgery?". I declined for the time being and left. I was outraged at such incompetence, I am paying more attention to cats and dogs in my job than those fuckers to human beings. Scheduling surgeries like that is ridiculous, and this is coming from a respected specialist. I had lost all hope in doctors. I am usually not the one to generalize and I hate prejudice but I really believe that traumatologists in Bulgaria are a bunch of incompetent greedy assholes.

Again, with my hope of painless days crushed, I concluded I will just cope with the hip pain as best as I can. I then read more in the trigger point book. It said that a trigger point in the tensor fascia latae muscle, which is right in the described area. I began mashing it for a week or so but nothing changed. It even got worse around New Year 2015 in the way that the same pain appeared in the left hip. Then I got pissed for a few days and I became a snappy bitch to the people around me. I am not the one to complain and share emotional stuff with people so I never told my wife about my troubles. She could do nothing about it so there was no point in troubling her. But when I was acting like a middle aged lady with a PMS I had to explain why. And I did. I apologized and we just got on with out lives.

Then in the middle of January a friend came along and I guess I was too sarcastic with him or something because he asked me why am I being a dick. I again explained and apologized again. My buddy said that when he feels some joint pain or muscle tension he goes to a certain manual therapist. He gladly shared the phone number with me. I was reluctant at first because my previous experience with medical staff made me hate them with a passion. I thought for a couple of days and I called the guy, we scheduled a session and I went.

As I was laying on my belly I was telling this whole story to him and he was pouring some scented oil on my back and rubbing it gently. When I was done he said "Ok, shut up now and just relax and breathe." to which I complied. He massaged my upper back first and gradually moved down. When he reached the region down the rib cage, between the ribs and the back of the pelvis, he exclaimed (in Bulgarian) "Fuuuuuuuck dude!". I asked what was wrong. To which he just pushed his fingers in the muscle called Quadratus lumborum.

I felt the familiar stab of pain, from the muscle to the hip region, like with the hot spike. And I yelled in pain. The dude just said "See, your trouble has always been in the back! This muscle here is rock hard. And on the left side too!". He massaged both sides and also did some stretches to me and gave me advice on what to do. Which meant that I could do whatever I wanted, just do some massage to the lower back from time to time.

After the session I went to my car and drove to work, pain free after 14 months. It felt weird, like a part of me missing. I never thought I'd get accustomed to physical pain but there it was. I really can't express my relief. For the measly sum of EUR 15 I had the advice I needed on what to do to be pain free... And the advice came not from a doctor but from a swearing manual therapist who as it turned out had absolutely no medical education but was so talented and knowledgeable in his job that he works in the best hospital in Bulgaria.

This session happened like two weeks ago. Since then I am massaging myself with a hard ball. I sometimes have a few stabs of pain in the hip but it's nothing compared to what I endured. I can train my favorite sport, walk around, I can run freely.

There's a silver lining to this dark cloud too. learned a huge deal from this pain. About my body, about pain patterns, about trigger points, about the retardation of doctors...I sincerely hope I don't look like some 80 year old grandpa complaining about aches. I never wanted to complain. I meant to share this and just give an advice. If you ever have those inexplicable muscle pains, maybe, just maybe, they are because of trigger points and you should see a therapist that know about trigger points and what to do with them.

Otherwise, stay cool, stay active and gl hf!