Graston Technique: A Story About My Sad Feet

In my last pain update, I reported that I injured myself at Pole Expo and was dealing with some major foot and back problems.  It is about six weeks later, and I am happy to report that my back is feeling much better (though it is still a little tight).  I am finally back to doing mini backbends in yoga (in my world, standing upright is a back bend).  My left foot is slowly following along (well, the top of it and the toes -- we will get to the bottom of my foot later).  Last night in yoga, I was actually able to roll over my toes from plank to downward dog without having to lift my feet up and carefully place them on the ground in order to avoid the sad toes.  However, now my left hip, which had responded well to the myofascial release therapy (I actually had quite a few completely pain free days!), is suddenly hurting.  A lot.  I can't win.  Ever.  

Don't tell anyone I was wearing these shoes...

Anyway, I met Angela through a fellow Twirly Girl, Jessica.  Angela, owner of Body Strong Massage, came out to NCPP and did chair massages for most of the day.  When I met Angela, she was in the process of setting up a location pretty close to my house so I promised to set up an appointment for a massage.  It took me a few months to pull it together but I finally got out there last week.  While she worked on me, we talked about all of my body issues.  Scars.  Injuries.  We talked about my foot surgery.  It took about a year, but my right foot is now mostly pain free post-fascia release, however, there's still kind of a bump in my foot where the fascia was cut.  Sadly, my left foot (even before the latest injury) was starting to have the plantar fasciitis type pain.  I expressed my frustration and she understood.  Angela does those crazy ultra marathons.  The ones I couldn't even dream of walking, much less running, with all the issues I'm having right now.  Anyway, she pulls out this little metal tool and starts talking about the Graston Technique.  She tells me she battled plantar fasciitis for a long time and it almost ruined her.  So she does foot work for a very reasonable price because she feels so passionately about helping people live without pain.  

What is the Graston Technique?  

"Graston Technique^® is an evidence-based form of instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization that enables clinicians to effectively address scar tissue and fascial restrictions through comprehensive training, resulting in improved patient outcomes.

The technique uses specially-designed stainless steel instruments, along with appropriate therapeutic exercise, to specifically detect and effectively treat areas exhibiting soft tissue fibrosis or chronic inflammation. The instruments also are used diagnostically to follow the kinetic chain, to locate and treat the cause of the symptom as well as the specific area of pain."

Angela tried out the technique on me during the massage.  She likened the knots in my body to many plastic bags stuck together.  You know, like those little bags in the grocery store that we need to lick our fingers to separate and put our produce in?  Those ones.  The tool is this small metal, almost brass knuckle-looking, thing.  I think of it kind of like a squeegee.  Think of laying tint on a window and you're trying to get all the air bubbles out.  That's how it felt for me.  

Although, Angela worked on me a little bit with the tool last Friday, I made an appointment for last night just to have my feet worked on.  It was crazy.  I could feel all of these little cracky things in both feet and calves.  She could feel where I was tight and then follow the yellow brick road to another area of the leg that was also tight.  I am a little sore today but have another appointment for next week.  

This was a really great experience for me.  I am not lessening the amazingness of Keith but it is nice to have someone very close to home.  I am realizing that, although Keith really put me back together when I was in the worst place, I needed to be seeing him a couple of times a week for a few months in order to have truly reaped the benefits of what he does.  I didn't really get that until I watched my doctor work on my hip.  So I am going to be more proactive with my feet and not wait until I can't walk to take care of the problem.

So, between my doctor fixing my hip and Angela fixing my feet, my goal is to be relatively pain free in 2015!  I have not been that way in over five years.  

Have you ever tried the Graston Technique?  Someone mentioned that it can be used on scars in general so maybe I'll start having her run it over my plastic surgery scars that have tightened down.  I'd love to hear about your experiences with it!

Mo' Injuries, Mo' Problems

So, I mentioned how, at Pole Expo, I'd flipped out of the Fly Gym and smashed myself up pretty well.  Although my toe was super bruised, and I thought possibly broken, my first and biggest worry when it first happened was the crack I heard in my neck. 

First off, I did have my foot x-rayed.  There was no break.  Although there's not much that can be done for broken toes (other than taping, usually), my doctor was concerned that the metatarsal may have been broken based on the level of bruising and swelling.  Although everything ended up being fine (well, "fine" as in, "not broken"), over two weeks later, my left foot is still swollen and my second toe hurts like a bitch all the time.  I imagine that constantly walking on it with a body weighing 240 pounds doesn't give much rest to tiny toesies.  I have another doctor's appointment this week and will probably start icing the foot to get swelling down.  I just barely got over my last foot problem (other foot, at least).  I don't need to go through this again. 



One creepy, bony foot; one swollen foot

Next issue:  that sickening crack I heard in my spine when I hit the floor.  The first doctor's appointment after Pole Expo was to deal with the toe.  The purple bruising was pretty fantastic, and everything else was just vaguely sore.  When I went in the next week (which was last week), my doctor asked how I felt.  I said, well it's weird but I feel this pinch and pain down my entire leg.  He said, I was worried about that!  He also said he was surprised I wasn't in even more pain.  Well, now that he's mentioned it, I *am* in a ton of pain! 

My doctor said that most likely I ruptured a disc when I fell and it was swollen and pinching a nerve.  He said to be careful about my arms (potentially indicates ruptured disc in neck) or legs (potentially indicates ruptured disc in lower back) falling asleep, because that could mean we have a larger issue (or worse injury than we thought).  At that point, maybe I will need an MRI??  Well, I'm sure its psychosomatic like the previously reported increased pain, but suddenly this weekend, I had several instances where my arms or legs went to sleep.  In fact, when I got up on a massage table yesterday, there was a pillow under my feet and the angle almost immediately put my legs to sleep.  I had to move it and shake my legs out and I was fine within seconds.  It was scary though.  And I'm still wondering if it is mostly in my mind. 

Apparently the next six weeks are critical (well, the next four weeks since two weeks have already passed).  I am supposed to be taking it very easy in the workout department.  No lifting of heavy things, which means no spotting during pole class.  I also need to be careful about back bending.  I haven't been to yoga in a couple of weeks (mostly because my toes hurt in positions like downward dog) but did do a very gentle Fly Gym class with Ginger last week, which felt great.  My doctor said this type of injury is usually too deep to ice but I have been icing my back and hip on occasion anyway.  I did a lot of walking and sitting while driving this weekend, and have low pain this morning, surprisingly.  This morning, in fact, my left hip is completely pain-free for the first time in years (thanks to the myofascial release).  The rest of my leg is slightly throbbing, however.

I feel like I will never get ahead.  As soon as I'm ready to start kicking ass and taking names, I get pushed down in the dirt.  I have another doctor's appointment this week.  I will mention the sleepy arms and legs, but am still feeling a little crazy that I didn't notice it until he mentioned it.  My goals at this point are to figure out how to be kind to my body without letting all my progress go by the wayside.

How do you deal with injuries?  I don't want to injure myself permanently, but if I stop exercising every time I'm hurt, I will essentially never exercise.  If you have any advice, please leave it in the comments below! 

September Blog Hop: Beauty, Body & Wellness

I am a little late getting to this month's blog hop.  I went straight from surgery recovery to Las Vegas for Pole Expo and then back to work.  I am having a hard time getting caught up and back on track with how to work and have fun.  Check out other posts on Beauty, Body & Wellness HERE.  

I want to discuss taking care of yourself in general when facing an injury.  I want to discuss weight with Health At Every Size in mind.  I don't want this to become a discussion about weight loss, but I do want to discuss how my body feels right now having been so inactive for the last several months.  

I started my new job in San Francisco last October.  I went from driving in my truck to a job about 25 miles away (up to an hour sitting in traffic) to sitting or standing on a train for 40 minutes with a 7-10 minute walk to the BART station and a 8-12 minute walk to work from the BART station.  Even though I have been pretty active for years, my foot started hurting almost immediately.  It wasn't until January that I actually went to the doctor and found out I have a bone spur in my heel, which was aggravating the plantar fascia and causing pain.  In April, the pain started to become unbearable.  Flash forward to August, when I had surgery to cut the fascia, and now, to September, where I am in the middle of my recovery phase.  Full recovery takes about three months, which will be the first week of November.

My body hurts.  Not always the foot that had surgery (sure, it's sore but it rarely hurts), but the rest of my body hurts from not moving enough.  My opposite hip, knee and foot are in pain.  My lower back hurts.  My mid-back hurts.  All because my body needs more movement.  

I am a compulsive eater.  When I am stressed out, sad, bored, tired, or whatever, I use food as a soothing mechanism.  I have used activity for most of my life to counter-act the overeating.  I had gained some weight a few years back but had maintained a fairly stable weight for at least the past two and a half years.  Removing activity from my life puts me in danger of gaining weight.  I don't want to act like gaining weight is the worst thing that can happen to a person but, for myself, I am not comfortable at this weight and would not like to be any more uncomfortable  Pole dancing is one of the activities I use to keep myself at a comfortable weight.  

Pole dancing is a sport that puts many of us at high risk for injury.  We put a lot of stress on our wrists, arms and shoulders.  Some of us go upside down and are at risk of falling on our heads.  We can pull muscles and throw out our backs.  We smack our legs.  We pinch our inner arms.  We get bruises.  And sometimes when we get injured, we just keep going.  No pain, no gain.  That's what we are told.

That isn't always the best way to deal with an injury.  I was not really able to dance toward the end, but I taught my class right up until surgery.  I don't know if that was the best decision, but I did what I felt I needed to do.  Post-surgery, however, I have tried to be kinder to myself.  Recovery is a very important part of growing and becoming stronger.  

The first two weeks post-surgery, I was on crutches and I sat in my chair and rested, just like the doctor ordered.  I could do some leg lifts and would stretch from the chair, but I did not push any limits.  After I was released to swim, I got in the pool.  I could also do a few more yoga poses and foam rolling on the floor.  At Pole Expo in Vegas, I wasn't technically released to do pole, so I canceled my pole workshop but did sign up for non-pole workshops:  belly dance, exotic fire dance and SWAG with Roz.  They were all a really good introduction back into the world of dance and exercise.

I have recently been released to ride a bike.  I am going to start spin classes next week and am hoping to start yoga in October.  I also plan to return to teaching pole in October.  We have a showcase at the end of October called Trick or Twirl, but I will not be performing.  I don't want to push it.  I have another doctor's appointment at the end of September and hope to be released to hike a little.  Once I am released to jog, I want to start signing up for 5k's again.  I felt like doing races gave me a goal to work towards.

So, if you are facing an injury, even though I know you will be eager to get back to pole as soon as possible, take time to allow your body to heal properly.  In the long run, it will make you a stronger poler and hopefully help you avoid re-injuring yourself. 

Be well, my pole family!  I miss you all and hope to be back very soon!