Sunday, January 28, 2018

Pubic Symphysis - What Is That?

Hello Runners,

Well, this week has been a sort of "good news / bad news" injury-wise.....

As the title of this article would lead you to believe - I've "found" another underlying injury which I'm now dealing with.  Apparently, our pubic bone (lower front abdomen) doesn't "quite" connect in the center of our body.  We have cartilage there called the pubic symphysis.  And...apparently...this cartilage can get irritated and cause issues.  Official names, based on each individual case / severity is "Pubic symphysis diathesis or "Osteitis Pubius".  Pic below:




 Those little red spots are where the pubic bone from each side ends.  Between these spots is the cartilage, which for me...is now irritated/damaged.  Google says this happens when extra stress is placed on the cartilage from other muscles being too tight and pulling on it when...for instance...RUNNING.  Other cause sited is "instability", but in my case I think my tight quads and hips along with extra mid-section "twisting" with my old running style is the culprit.

My PT says now that I've solved my other injuries (psoas/iliopsoas tendon/tight quads, etc.) we now have to deal with this injury.  So...progress?  Yes, but I'm not out of the woods, and still very fragile.

It really flared up after running outside last Sunday on a dirt trail that still had some mud on it.  Running on the trail required some "side to side" movement and stabilization that I haven't needed so far in my recovery which has been on the treadmill only.

Luckily I already had an appt with the sports doc the following day.  He took a look, did an ultrasound, found the spot, and give me a prolo injection.  I tell you what....that shit REALLY hurt!  I was almost crying, but I would never tell him to stop...I need this to get better, and a little injection is not going to stop me.  Within about 10 minutes of the injection it was already feeling better...this is because the prolo injection also has Lidocaine in it, a pain reliever.  I was running on the treadmill at the office a few minutes later and it felt fine.

My prescription was to keep running every other day on the treadmill, and do the specific strength exercises I've been given (hip / core work).

So far...this has been working and I've been slowly increasing my runs.  I'm basically doing 40' of easy running with 30 second walk breaks every so often. 

The walk breaks do two things:
  • Gives me a chance to fully "check-in" on how I'm feeling.  If something hurts more than it should / is getting worse, then I STOP.
  • Aerobically / strength-wise is also gives me a break.  I'm WAY out of shape and my new running form focusing more on core stabilization which can get tiring (since this is new to me).  So, it gives me a break and help make sure I keep my form for the WHOLE run.
  • Three runs this week.  With each run I've extended the "run intervals" from 6:00 to 10:00; walking 30 seconds between.
    • Today I added an additional 5' to the end for a total of 45' running.  Whoo hoo!
Onward....






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