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I had my first visit today with Mark, a physical therapist.   When deciding which PT to see, I knew Mark’s office was a bit of a hike for me, but since he was well regarded by a bunch of runners I thought it would be worth the trip, instead of just picking a closer but random PT. (The PT I had visited previously was probably fine for most situations, but I wanted to go to one that specialized in runners this time).

We started out with Mark taking a training/injury history from me.  Then he had me perform a bunch of movement and balance exercises (I felt incredible clumsy trying to do some of the exercises).  Next he took measurements of my feet/ankles and checked flexibility.  I apparently have a small leg-length discrepancy.  He also had me put pressure pads in my shoes to see how my feet distributed stress when walking.  Just as the PT I visited about 5 months ago saw, I was doing almost no toe-off. I had focused on proper toe-off sometimes during running and thought I had improved on it , but the pressure sensors showed that wasn’t the case.  I also was showing much higher pressures on my right foot, which indicates I am favoring it.  Mark also had me run outside for a few short bursts of varying speeds under his watchful eye to check my running form.

After he was finished with his observations and measurements, he said my form wasn’t (completely) horrible, but that there definitely were some areas I could  improve.  Unfortunately there wasn’t any clear clues as to what might be causing the lower leg sensations, but he recommended that I take a break for two weeks and see if the rest helps.   He thought I could try doing PT exercises without adding additional (much) stress to my calves, so I’ll try working with his team and see how it goes.

I’ve been traveling quite a lot during the last four weeks (a week in Philly, a 2 day trip to Cambridge Mass to speak at a small presentation at Harvard, 4 days in Rochester NY, and then a week back in Philly).    While in Philly I’ve been working at the Comcast Center.  The building has some neat features.  There is a huge and amazing high-definition screen in the lobby that is a tourist attraction all in itself and shows  a rotation of short clips that range from merely cool to eye-popping.  On the 43rd and 44th floors is a cafeteria that gives an incredible view of the city and surrounding area (I’m not sure if you can access the cafeteria unless you have a badge).  If you are in downtown Philadelphia, it is worth heading over to the corner of 17th street and JFK Boulevard to check it out.

Earlier in the week  I was eating lunch at that cafeteria and looked up and saw the Direct TV blimp was circling the Comcast Center, which I thought was pretty funny (since they are direct competitors).  I think it would have been ever cooler if they skinned the blimp to make it look like a pirate ship.

On nights I have been bored I’ve started walking down to the Ritz at the Bourse theater, which has a nice selection of independent and foreign films.

If you have any interest in medical books (my interest in sports medicine has certainly increase recently), there is a wide selection of medical books at the Thomas Jefferson University Bookstore at 1099 Chestnut Street.   I picked up a copy of The 5 minute Sports Medicine Consult which has been neat to look through.

I’ve been using the Akismet wordpress plugin to block comment spam and it has been fantastic.   It is free for personal use and out of over 4000 spam comments that have been posted to my blog, Akismet has only let about 20 slip through to the comment moderator panel.  Even more importantly, I’ve never seen a non-spam comment get flagged.  Without Akismet (or something similar) I probably wouldn’t have comments enabled since the administrative burden would be too much. I highly recommend Akismet to anyone looking for a comment spam blocker.

I looked into using Akismet for my company’s blog, but for very small commercial sites, the price seems a little excessive ($600/year for 5 or less blogs).

After not hearing anything back on the MRI by early Thursday afternoon I called my doctor’s office.  They had not heard anything from the hospital that did the MRI yet.  I called the outpatient imaging center at the hospital a bunch of times, but it always went to voice mail, so I left a message.  I called back this morning and reached a person who transferred me to the transcription department.  The woman I talked to there said the reason my report had not been passed back to my doctor yet was that the radiologist had not signed off on the report yet, but that she could fax over a prelimary version if I wanted it.  You bet.

My doctor called me about an hour later.  The good news is there doesn’t appear to be any significant structural damage.  The bad news is we aren’t any closer to knowing what the real problem is.  Next step is to start seeing a physical therapist.

I’m putting running on hold for a bit, so my new goal is to work on my upper body some more and be able to do some chin-ups/pull-ups.

LA Fitness has a cool machine that lets you apply different levels of counter-weights when trying a pull-up, so you can practice the full range of motion even when you can’t lift your whole body weight.

I just went for a bike ride at the Conewago trail and I think I dropped my iPod  in the parking lot while wrestling my bike into the back of my car.  If you happen to be a kind person who found my iPod and are googling ‘William Hathaway 10 years @ Versatile’ to figure out who owns it, please contact me at bill.hathaway@gmail.com or 717-314-461. I’ll be happy to give a cash reward or a donation to charity.  Thanks!

I had blogged awhile ago about a UC Berkley course informally titled “Physics for Future Presidents” that I had listened to on my iPod and found really enjoyable.  The professor has just released a book version meant for the casual reader (you don’t need to be a physics egghead at all).  I found my copy when I got home on Friday and am about 1/3 through it.  If you have any interest in learning about things that a “future president” should know about terrorism, energy, nukes, space, and global warming etc… to help make policy decisions, this book is a fantastic read, I’d highly recommend it.

Amazon Link

If you are someone I see on a regular basis and want to borrow my copy, just let me know.  I’ll be done with it by Tuesday at the latest.

The administrative paperwork phase of the appointment was an almost otherworldly hassle, but I had an MRI of my lower left leg taken at Drexel’s Hahnemann Hospital in Philly today.  Hopefully I will hear something back on the results early next week that will add some clarity to my issues.

I got a reminder email from the Harrisburg Half-Marathon that it is 6 weeks away.  I had signed up for the race about a week before I got injured, it is probably a coin-toss at this point if I will be running in it.

Thanks for all the kind comments and emails I’ve received, I appreciate it!

Got the electrolyte test results back, my potassium/magnesium/calcium levels appear within the normal ranges.  I was hoping that electrolytes would be the problem since that can easily be  fixed with a couple of dollars for short-term supplements and in the longer term by changing eating habits.

My doctor is still trying to work with the insurance company to get approval for the MRI.

I tried two runs this week.  Both I had to cut pretty short because my legs were bothering me and I’ve been having minor muscle spasms in my lower left leg still on a regular basis.  I was able to go back and see my doctor today.  He had me get a blood test for electrolyte levels (hopefully have that back Monday) due to muscle spasms and is trying to get my insurance company to cover an MRI.  I’ll be in Philly all next week, but if my insurance company will cover the MRI there are plenty of hosptials where I can get the scan done there.  If all goes well I can get a scan and have the results analyzed by the end of the week.

Since we still aren’t sure what the problem is, I’m a bit nervous about doing more biking.  While biking doesn’t have any impact, it still stresses the muscles and tendons.  I ordered a mini stationary hand-bike from Amazon which should be here tomorrow.   I’ll try using that with my arms and see if I can keep some of my cardiovascular conditioning until I know what exercises I can safely do.