East and West

Following last Friday's Qi Gong session with Master Yang, I had one of the worst days of this whole episode. Saturday morning I woke before dawn with my leg throbbing. It went on that way most of the day, like I'd been kicked hard in the thigh and the knee. The whole left quad and knee felt like a wooden block, thick and tight and angry with pain. No position sitting, standing, or laying was really comfortable. I despaired.

Prague, The Czech Republic 1998, or
The way I felt Saturday

But the day after that, this past Sunday (World Cup Final Day), I began to feel better and by Monday I was bending my leg almost all the way without pain. I could ride in the front seat of the car without contorting myself into weird positions, could sit up straight at my desk for extended periods of time, was able to walk less stiff-legged. Tuesday continued that trend and on through this morning, Wednesday. But something shifted around noon today and just like that I began to experience real discomfort again when taking a stride. Pain developed right below and to the left of the kneecap rendering the leg essentially un-bendable again.

And that's where I am this evening. I had a session with Master Yang this afternoon and while it didn't result in any dramatic improvement, it was instructive. He reiterated his belief that I'm suffering through a pinched nerve and pointed to his left buttock. Regardless of whether it's actually a "pinched nerve" (does that term mean the same to him, not a native English speaker, as it does to me?), he insisted again that the problem is not the knee. And he proved that as much. How?

During today's session he had me lay on my stomach and tried to raise my foot (leaving my quad flat on the table) to flex my knee. He was hoping he could initiate a little chi pumping. No way. He held my ankle firmly and attempted to bend the leg at the knee but he didn't get more than 20 degrees and the pain hit. I couldn't do it. I laid there, face down in the crinkly-paper-lined face cup and remonstrated with myself. "I'm trying!" I wanted to say, because I was, though without success.

But later in the session, he had me lay on my back. This time he held my foot with one hand and slipped his other hand under my thigh and raised my whole leg, and then tried to gradually bend my knee. It worked! In no time he had my entire leg folded. He gently worked the leg further in, pushing my folded limb toward my chest, into my torso. It felt so good to bend the leg! Then he re-positioned himself and gathered up my other leg and then he had both of them, holding them expertly, securely, and he began rocking into me & pushing both my folded legs inward toward my pelvis and torso. Amazing! I relished it, the egg position, and no pain!

And that, he pointed out at the end of the session, is his proof that something in the lower left back/butt is seized up or pinched or blocked (fill in your own descriptive term). Once he relieved the pressure by raising my whole leg and supporting it while bending, the knee was fine. But stretched out on my stomach and trying to bend ONLY the knee (to raise the ankle/foot perpendicular) was impossible because that position, evidently, results in the proverbial pinching and thus triggers the pain sensation in the knee area.

That's the East. As for the West, I saw my primary care doctor on Tuesday and she encouraged me to follow through with the rheumatology appointment this Friday. To her credit, she advised that the rheumatologist I'm seeing tends to over-prescribe medication and that I shouldn't feel compelled to take something that doesn't seem appropriate. Interesting inside tip.

That's the latest update. Fuck, this blog was supposed to be all about my year of training rides, a rider's diary. And now it's turned into drear health updates.

When my knee felt as good as it did on Sunday I started to have hesitant ideas about being well enough to ride on the weekend. Today disabused me of those thoughts.

Team Shad Update: Not only am I incapacitated but The Virginian too has injured himself. He severely sprained his ankle gardening. Yes, this is what has happened to the squad. Thankfully, as far as anyone knows, I Ward is still out there, still healthy, hopefully climbing his butt up some serious hills and getting reading for the Dirty 40.

The Virginian's sprained left ankle
and Dubstoevsky's bum left quad