Dang Nerves!

 I've been taking ibuprofen twice a day. Sometimes I put a cold gel pack on my butt or knee or thigh. Sitting is killing me. This morning I see the orthopedist. While waiting, I tell the desk about my hip issues. They decide to run x-rays of both my shoulder and hip. It's convenient that this medical conglomerate has the entire building complex, so x-rays are just down the hall in another suite. I find a pile of paper on the table stacked with magazines. At first I think it's a survey, but then I realize that it's actually a patient's visit history printed out and neatly stacked in plain view. I bring it to the desk and tell them I don't think it's suppose to be out here. They are totally surprised. People are so unobservant. There are at least 3 other people waiting in this same room. Everyone is oblivious.

The orthopedist is much younger than I expect, resembling a more mature Tyler from the TV show Life in Pieces. Well, perhaps not so goofy or gangly. He has a slight Brit accent as well. My x-rays look great. No arthritis. Just the tiniest little spur on the shoulder. The hip looks equally good. He moves my arm gently and tells me that I probably have a slight labral tear. I need to strengthen the tiny rotator cuff muscles. I get a script for PT (physical therapy). Once they show me what to do, I can do this at the gym myself.

I'm annoyed he's not very helpful when I ask him about not having my shoulder click and catch, that I want to do pull ups and push ups again. Maybe it's because I tell him I got to 40 Hindu push ups and wanted to do 50. Then I had to explain what a Hindu push up was. He tells me his shoulder clicks and catches when he works out, but he isn't getting it fixed. Yeah, well he's a doctor, with this whole orthopedic career. Working out is different for him. I realize that my complaints might seem kind of silly to someone who is used to dealing with either younger athletes, or old people who are having issues with quality of life. Ugh.

The hip is more surprising. He tells me that it's not a groin pull because of the symptoms. Even though I don't have any lower back pain, he suspects it's nerve impingement. Like sciatica. Except the last time I had sciatica, it was the other leg and I could feel the Seated Cable Rowing movement that aggravated it. Sciatica in the right leg is Piriformis Sciatica, caused when the piriformis muscle (that runs across the glutes) gets too tight. But other than the weird tenderness inside my hip area, all the other symptoms fit, especially the burning skin sensation and tingling in my calf and toes. Ugh. I have a type of sciatica in my right side now. Now I have to research sacroiliac joint dysfunction, especially since the image to the left shows pain inside the hip area. Yep, that's me!

The doc advises me to take Aleve 2x daily for a week and to avoid anything that hurts. He gives me the name of a specialist down in Mt Kisco. Ugh. I hate driving down there. There are so many reasons I could have sciatica, from increasing weight on my RDLs to adding an additional Pull Day to my routine. It could've been the RG BB Rows. I don't have any lower back pain, but my right butt cheek hurts as if I'd bruised it. My leg aches. Driving around all day doesn't help. Worse, I stumble across a website that lists the 8 Worst Exercises to do if you have sciatica. Guess what's on the list? Everything! Seriously.

1. Excessively stretching the hammies
2. Bent over rows (dang!)
3. Straight leg sit ups (who the hell does those anymore?!) 
4. Abdominal stretches (oh, you mean like the Cobra pose? it's recommended to help with sacroiliac joint dysfunction!) 
5. Full body squats (no ATG here!)
6. Heavy dead lifts (oops!) 
7. Weight lifting exercises (seriously? just a generic No to weights?) 
8. Leg exercises.

I realize that there's a lot of crap out there on the web. Never mind that this website doesn't seem to have any credentials, but wants to sell you products and books. I see it in especially in Health articles on my iPad Flipboard. There are certain articles that are just so poorly written I don't know how they qualify as articles, except that they are words on a page. But they make as much sense as random letters tossed out of a board game cup.

Well, tomorrow maybe I'll just go walk on the treadmill... sigh.