Just Another Blog
Thursday, April 19, 2007
 
Eureka!

I think I've figured out what's wrong with my leg and my stunted healing progress. It's my stride. I need to lengthen my stride. It explains everything!

Before I got hurt, I had a very long stride that I developed walking up and down the hill on the way to and from work everyday. Well, part of it was the hill; part of it was a regular need to hurry to get there on time; part of it dates back to the days of pal-ing around with Vince who walks extremely quickly, especially for a smoker. In any case, I had a long stride and was perceived as a fast walker.

After about 14 weeks of not walking, being on crutches, and, finally, using one crutch, my legs weren't kicking out the marches the way they used to. Early on, one of the limiting factors to my walking was the fact that my hamstrings on my bad leg had shrunk significantly. I physically just couldn't extend my leg all the way straight. I've been at a point for a number of weeks now where I feel like my hamstrings are about back to where they were, and I continue to focus on stretching them. So why then do I still sort of limp? Why do I still keep having the discomfort in my knee? Why in the world do I have that awful knot in my good leg that always hurts when I walk? Why do all my shoes fit differently now? The doctors didn't touch my feet. Why do I get new blisters in weird places from shoes that never bothered me before? Why do I so often get all wobbly and off balance for no reason when I'm just walking along? Why won't the tendinitis in my bad knee go away?

So much would seem to be fixed and explained by the stride.

The knot - which more than anything else has really had me freaked out (since it seemed so unexplainable, constant, and painful) - is in the middle of a muscle group that seems to connect from my hip to my good knee. Why would it knot up there? That's the middle of a long muscle that stretched to its fullest everything time I took a big step up or down that hill. When I stopped taking big steps, that part in the middle never got stretched out. It just got all balled up and was rarely needed. As I strive to take bigger steps, I hope to feel that knot just pull itself right apart. A problem? No, a frayed knot.

The knee on the other side has been bothering me since Hawaii with an unrelenting case of tendinitis. A big step with the good leg means a big step with the bad leg, and I could feel the difference with the big steps on the bad side too. My tendons apparently still remember the feel and layout of the old connections which makes sense since the surgeon had said the tendons hadn't been damaged. By not taking big steps, I've been irritating them and had them rubbing and moving in ways they weren't used too.

I'm getting blisters because I walk funny when I take smaller steps. I had figured out that I was walking funny, but I couldn't figure out how to fix it. When I stand in place, I tend to stand with my left foot pointed straight ahead and my right one angled slightly outward. When I started walking again, or maybe always when I walked slowly, I walked that way with my right foot not coming down cleanly heel to toe. Taking long strides and concentrating on my form helps ensure a more natural stepping motion and rolling of my foot to better align with its design. My shoes fit fine, and the blisters will relent once I quit rubbin' my feet around in 'em at weird angles. I'm thinking the better stepping motion might help with my wobble too.

The longer stride also changes the way that my weight is carried over my knee. You'll recall that it was the weight-bearing surface of my lower left leg that was shattered. I continue to feel discomfort that I believe is coming from the area at the top of that bone where the artificial bone graft was done. I still can't bear much weight beyond my own body weight. When I carry in groceries, I load all of the heavy stuff to the right side. I can't go up the stairs two at a time without pulling along on the railing because of the pain that emanates from that point when pressure is applied. My theory, based upon my limited observations this evening, is that the longer stride, by changing the placement and movement of my body as it moves over my knee, will allow all of the parts and surfaces to move and rub together the way that they used to. That will hopefully relieve whatever continues to irritate the graft area. Once it heals completely, I'll be able to add back strength and power.

I came to this revelation part way through a brief walk this evening just up to Meade Street and back - just to the street, not to the bar. I'm not entirely sure that lengthening my stride will really cure all that ails me, but I sure am excited by the possibility. I couldn't keep up my big steps all the way home. My hamstrings and feet have become accustomed to the shorter steps. My hamstrings began to tighten, and my feet began to cramp. It was one quick walk, one time, but suddenly, I could feel that knot tugging apart, and I could feel a big difference in how my feet felt in my shoes, and I could feel a different sort of stretching on both the front and back of my bad knee, and suddenly, all of the problems seemed to be tied to a common solution.

Time will tell.