Frequent injuries have been a fact of my life since I started playing sports. I'm not talking about traumatic injuries -- I've only had one of those, a separated shoulder, and it was from a fall that would have hurt most people -- but more strains and sprains and aches that just always seem to be there in one part of my body or other. As a person who loves exercising and playing sports, this is incredibly frustrating. There has to be a reason, whether or not I can do anything about it.
My interest in training came out of an interest in physical therapy that itself came out of spraining my ankle six goddamn times. Time to get back into PT mode. This thread will be a repository for things I read about injury-proneness and what to do about it.
Hey dude, been a long time since I've posted. I have a quick question- IIRC you had a metatarsal fracture or some arthritis somewhere in your feet? I could be wrong. The reason I'm asking is that my mom has arthritis in her left big toe metatarsophalangeal joints...was wondering if you'd had anything similar...she's suffering pretty badly from it (after physical therapy, massage therapy, etc. they've made a recommendation for her to get surgery)...I thought I'd ask to see if you had the same injury and if so how you circumvented it.
peace
yo. i do in fact have arthritis in the same spot as your mom (both feet, though). started developing because of an apparently congentinal deformity in the joint when i was in my early 20s, so about 10 years ago. it sucked hugely for several years but has basically stabilized to the point where i don't notice it most of the time anymore.
sucked because:
1. joints inflamed, hurt all the time
2. gave me plantar fasciitis (don't have a medical confirmation of a link but had PF at the same time the arthritis was kicking in and it didn't seem like a coincidence at the time)
3. fucked with my gait, leading to chronic pain in my hamstrings and low back in particular.
i did PT, got orthotics, got X-rayed, etc. the surgeon i talked to and the podiatrist both said that it wouldn't get any worse, so the best i could do was just wear orthotics and get used to it. i hated the orthotics and only wore them for a couple of months. eventually, my body adjusted to the new gait and i'm fine most of the time. now my toes are really stiff and if i step on them wrong i can get a little jolt of pain, but mostly they're fine. can't do lunges, push-ups barefoot are tricky, burpees are completely out. and i'm sure i'm leaking power on jumps, sprints, runs, etc., because my toe off has to work around the big toes' inability to flex upward.
the surgeon also told me that he could operate, but the surgical fix for the problem is crude: it involves shaving down the joint and screwing the toe, literally, into place in a flexed position. i was like 23 at the time and still very active, and the surgery seriously diminishes the potential to project power through the feet. in his view, god bless him, it wasn't worth it. he said because the joint is so small, it's hard to operate on, and to wait until (1) i was old enough not to care about running and jumping and (2) doctors had come up with a better operation. hip replacements used to be crippling, now the success rate is super high and i even know a dude who started combat sports after rugby wore down his hip to the point where he needed surgery in his mid-30s. if the toe surgery ever gets to that point, i'll think about it. until them, i'm okay.
dunno how old or active your mom is, and that info is nearly a decade old (and filtered through me, a non-clinician, so take it with a grain of salt). hope it's helpful all the same.
