Bursitis on Ice

Wednesday night, I went skating and could barely move around. And it's all my fault.

Monday my orthopod had drawn his Thumb of Pain down my hip and diagnosed "Bursitis"

Yes, fixing me is a construction project. The bursitis was always there  but its depth was masked by my knee pain.
So after an initial  adjustment to my physical therapy Tuesday, I power muscled my way through my exercises. I paid for it Wednesday, when I could barely do a crossover.  That's the bursitis acting up.

It hurt here

Today, the PT backed off on the weights, and I hang my head in shame. I'm for my height I'm strong and I got carried away. I should have left my PT know I was 'challenged' by the weights I was doing.

I got Ultrasound treatment for the bursitis at the end of my exercises this afternoon.  This involved partially disrobing in a treatment room to expose my hip. If I'd known I was going to have to do that, I would have worn my Sunday go to meeting panties.

The Ultrasound does make my hip feel better.  I can't help but wonder how it works though. I had it 30 years ago for scar tissue in a shoulder, and it worked a miracle. I'm hoping it does the same here.

I'm a sucker for technology

Lesson learned. Just because I'm small but mighty, I don't need to rise to the challenge every time.  I can slack off with lighter weights for a while.

Power Slide Board

I went to physical therapy tonight and Rapunzel the Cruel upped my therapy to include the Power Slide  Board. This is used in off-ice training for hockey and speed skating. I've never seen any reference to it being used for figure skating.

So, you wear booties over your shoes and step (carefully) onto the board. It's very slick. Then you slide back and forth.

It's scarily slick. Be careful.

Imagine you're stepping on the ice in a pair of broken down rental skates that haven't been sharpened since the last Olympics. That's what it's like.

I looked at it, and I did not think, "Oh, this looks easy." I thought, "This thing is going to kill me."

When I got on, my skating muscle memory kept trying to get an edge. Even though I was consciously sending messages to my leg, knee, and ankle muscles, I kept unconsciously falling back into skating techniques with my feet.

Rapuzel the Cruel had to hold my hands, even though I had deep knee bend and was nicely balanced. Maybe someone with quicker reflexes (mine are old) could have adapted quickly; I couldn't.

Still, I guess it's a nice muscle and stride builder for certain kinds of skating when no ice is available.

Rapunzel the Cruel delights in upping the challenge to my muscles and joints, I think I'll see this again.

Here's what it looks like when you know what you're doing. This is basic stroking:

Here's a speedskater working on his crossover technique. NOT sliding on the board takes a lot of control of upper body and lower leg strength.

This is me:

My destination is good knee health!

The HIP DIP

I was at physical therapy for the knee today, and I asked my physical therapist, Rapunzel the Cruel, why I was having knee pain when I skated backwards.

She had me stand and walk in various backwards skating-like positions until I was able to duplicate the pain. So there I am finally, balancing with the bulk of my weight on the ball of my right foot, with my left foot forward, and the inside of my right knee burning like fire.

"Oh," Rapunzel says, "I see the problem.  Your knee is buckling inwards because your hip isn't strong enough." When I balance going backwards, my right hip dips, making my right knee collapse sideways.

I now have exercises to strengthen my gluteus medius.

I have to strengthen the little muscle on the right

This explains my lousy right inside swing rolls, right three turns, and whatever else.

My total daily average workout requirement is now an hour and a half--off ice.

Much rather be ON ice.

Physical Therapy Begins!

My therapy involves low weight, high repetitions, all on the side of the body with the bad knee. Surprisingly, this is tiring. I was also told to ice my bad knee after I skate. So there's your little health tip for the day.

Still, I'm in much, much better shape than anyone else in the therapy gym except the cute guy in his 20's who's recovering from some sports injury.  One of his exercises was to stand on one foot, on a therapy cushion, throw a ball at a rebounder and catch it on the way back.  They're at least not starting me on that. I just have to stand on one foot on the therapy cushion and not fall over.

"You can touch the barre for balance," the technician told me, "if you feel you're going to fall over. Just don't use the barre to hold you up."

I stood on the cushion, took up my ice dance posture, and raised my left foot. 15 seconds, 3 times. I never touched the barre.

The technician was impressed.  "You're doing better than I could," she said.

Well, we all know the reason why, don't we.

I . am . a . figure . skater!

(We'll see if I'm this smug when they make me stand on one foot and throw that ball at the rebounder. I can't even catch a ball if I'm standing on two feet!)