Running and pelvic spasm

Albingma

Barefooters
Aug 4, 2015
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About a year ago I had to run away from a dangerous person who was threatening me on the street. I have never run so fast in my life. Being a non-runner, I subsequently tore my groin muscles and couldn't walk comfortably for about a week afterwards. During this time, while I was doing my usual daily stretches my groin muscles went into spasm. I was doing a side split stretch, a stretch I've been doing for 20 years(I did a lot of ballet in my youth). Magnesium baths initially helped but became of no effect after a few weeks.

Two months later, as I was picking up a heavy bag the muscles in the area of my diaphram went into spasm. After this happened I was not able to pick up anything due to the pain and had to move back to my parents' house. Physiotherapy only worsened my condition. I've found the only therapy that has helped so far is feldenkrais. I've been seeing a practitioner now for 6 months. I am now able to pick up things again. She's happy with my progress but it's a slow slog.

Over the year I was wearing a pair of old nike airs which I had to tie onto my feet fairly tightly to prevent the heels from slipping. I was getting pins and needles in the soles of my feet so I changed to Lems primal 2 runners. I found it difficult walking in these shoes and had to slow down my walk as I'm not used to thin flexible soles. Because of my pelvic spasm, as my feet move from heel to toe it feels like I'm walking over a hill with every step I take. During my ballet years I had a lot of ball of the foot pain and pain in the tendons under my knees. I feel my current foot problem stems from this as at the moment I also have a lot of stiffness under my knees. As a dancer I also struggled with short(tight??) achilles.

After wearing the Lems for a few weeks I began to get pain in my right foot between the third and fourth metatartsals. I had to stop walking due to the worsening pain. My therapist told me I had a morton's neuroma. So I've been limping around for about 2 months now but it is healing. I think the Lems shoes were too short for my feet so I had to order the next size up. A physio friend advised me not to wear Lems. She says this would place too much stress on my feet as they will have to compensate for the lack of movement in my spasmed pelvis. She advised me to wear shoes with thick padded soles that are not too flexible. I don't see how I can heal if I don't let my body move the way it was intended to.

My therapist has not told me this, but I suspect all these problems with my body are due to my mortons toes and the stress put on my feet from dancing in pointe all those years ago. My doctor mentioned that my hyperflexibility(excluding my achilles!!!) could also play some part. Some years ago I suddenly developed disabling weakness in my wrists. I was not able to carry the shopping bags and then I was not able to manouver the steering wheel of my car. Around the same time my dentist told me I had lost a third of bone in my jaw bone from comparing my dental x-ray to my x-ray from about 10 years ago. So I started taking vitamin D and hydroxyapatite which helped but not completely. I have a slipped lunate bone in my right wrist after picking up a heavy bag of cat litter. My left index finger is permanently twisted to the left after I was digging the soil with a heavy garden pick. So I'm also wondering if I have some kind of connective tissue disorder which is causing spasm. I have questioned several doctors about these injuries but they don't think they're serious enough for specialist referral.

My apologies for the long and winding spiel but I would love to hear your views/suggestions please!
 
I've clicked on this a few times trying to come up with something. I can only imagine you're feeling like your body is falling apart. You might consider reposting this in the Ask the Docs forum. I'm not a doctor so I can only speak from experience. I don't know anything about connective tissue disorders. It seems to me that it could conceivably all be caused by one thing, but it seems equally likely that at least some of your issues are unrelated.

The wrist problem, for instance, could be carpal tunnel syndrome. I've had it in my youth from repetitive stress--Millipede, an evil, high stress video game with a track ball that I was glad to be free of once I realized it was the trackball that was hurting my wrist. My wife has it from sleeping with her hands in weird positions and a coworker years ago said hers was from water retention during pregnancy.

I injured a finger once and after the wound healed I thought I wouldn't be able to bend it more than halfway ever again. Finally after many months I realized that it needed to be flexed and stretched and worked--physical therapy, in other words. Does you finger just need some PT to get back to normal?

For me, what helped with my chronic achilles problem was bent knee calf stretches/raises. With the knee bent 90 degrees it isolates the soleus--the lower half of the calf and apparently I needed some strengthening and stretching there.

I don't know what to do about the groin/diaphragm issue. It seems like whatever gentle exercises to strengthen the core muscles would help--knee raises, twists, sitting ab crunches--but if you can't even start those I don't know where you would start. Whatever specific movements you can't do, try to find the muscle/s involved and google those for rehab exercises.

Good luck and don't give up!
 
Thanks for your reply Randy. The carpel tunnel was something I never considered, strangely, as it does make sense-I'm a pianist but have never had trouble with my wrists while playing. Perhaps there is strain but it only expresses when I carry out weight-bearing activities.

Concerning my index finger, I've had many osteo sessions which didn't really help. I had one physio session with an experienced sports therapist, who advised I should make changes to my lifestyle and diet. I have always been walking 45 mins a day and have had a balanced diet. My mum was recently diagnosed with osteoporosis. Her medical results show she has had it for a long time, so perhaps I should get a bone density test myself.

I'm still needing to get back into my walking routine after waiting for a morton's neuroma to heal. My PT told me to use the circular motion of my shoulders and hips to carry myself forward when I walk, so I'm not giving my feet all the work. The exercises you mention are indeed too much for me currently but I'm hoping the more I walk in my barefoot shoes, the stronger I'll get. For most of my adult life I've been walking around in thick inflexible soled sneakers so my body has a lot of learning to do!

Once again thanks for your suggestions and I hope your wife can resolve her wrist problem. I have to say, I used to wake up every morning with lower back pain due to my sleep position, but feldenkrais therapy resolved that one for me.
 
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She advised me to wear shoes with thick padded soles that are not too flexible. I don't see how I can heal if I don't let my body move the way it was intended to.

Sometimes, we have to aid our bodies in the way they need it in order to return them to the way the need to be. Just as if you broke your leg, you would have a cast on, use a crutch, then once the bone had healed, you would remove the cast, the crutch, and begin restrengthening that leg. Don't think of the temporary use of shoes that are unflexable and cushioned as a negative; think of them as your temporary cast and crutch.


So I'm also wondering if I have some kind of connective tissue disorder which is causing spasm. I have questioned several doctors about these injuries but they don't think they're serious enough for specialist referral.

If I were you, I would get more opinions. I hate it when a doctor thinks their say is the final say. You have the final say. If your insurance doesn't allow you to see a specialist of your choosing without doctor referral, then you DEMAND a referral from them, or you tell them you will continue to see other doctors until you find one who will.

I am fortunate enough to have insurance that allows me to see a specialist of my choosing without doctor referral. Do you know if yours does? If not, check with them to see.


My therapist told me I had a morton's neuroma.

Did this therapist do any testing for MN?

It just so happens that I am the founder of Morton's Neuroma Talk (MN Talk). We are the only forum dedicated to MN. Check out my signature, and please join us at www.MortonsNeuromaTalk.com.

Also, we have an Ask the Docs forum. Feel free to post there as well.
 
The carpel tunnel was something I never considered, strangely, as it does make sense-I'm a pianist but have never had trouble with my wrists while playing. Perhaps there is strain but it only expresses when I carry out weight-bearing activities.

I too have mild carpal tunnel syndrome in both wrists, according to Electromyogram (EMG) and Nerve Conduction Studies (NCS) testing. I got it from all the typing I do here at the BRS and MN Talk to keep the forums going over the past 5-1/2 years. I know, I know. All you guys feels so sorry for me. Anywho, it was recommended that I have the surgery to open the tunnel, allowing the nerves more room to move about, but I've had enough surgery in my life, I don't want anymore, so I decided to just wear splints on my wrists at night and at those time when it was really bad throughout the day. This worked, mostly. When I was going through the worst of it, just like you, I couldn't carry things, and turning knobs, writing, etc., hurt.

The way I understand carpal tunnel pain is that our hands and fingers are used repeatedly in the same position over and over again, that we lock ourselves into that position. When we try to do something else, like open cans, turn knobs, and carry things, then we experience the sharp pains. We have to undo that damage by keep our wrists/hands in an outward position, such as what the splint can do for you.

My mum was recently diagnosed with osteoporosis. Her medical results show she has had it for a long time, so perhaps I should get a bone density test myself.

Definitely, get a bone densitometry test. Not that you have this problem, but I had developed Hyperparathyroidism (a benign tumor on a parathyroid, not to be confused with the thyroid) sometime in my 20s (this is a condition that normally affects women who are post menopausal), and I eventually developed osteoporosis by the time I was in my early 30s. I had surgery to remove the tumored parathyroid, and I began rebuilding bone, automatically. Within four years, I had gone from having osteoporosis to osteopenia. I will never be in the "normal" bone density range because of my age, but at least my bones have strengthened.

Yes, I am a mess! I know.

I'm still needing to get back into my walking routine after waiting for a morton's neuroma to heal.

Morton's Neuroma is a nerve compression and is caused by the buildup of scar tissue around the nerve sheath. Keep that in mind.

If you have an MN, then it will not heal on its own. You have to seek treatment for it (some claim they have healed their MN with homeopathic/natural remedies, while others had to seek surgical intervention). If you are dealing with an inflamed nerve (the stage that takes place just before an MN has developed), often misdiagnosed as MN, then it will take a very long time for it to heal. You have to rest it as much as possible, ice whenever you can (if it's not painful to do so, as it is with some people), take anti-inflammatories (either natural or pharmaceutical), and walk everywhere you can barefoot (not barefoot-style shoes), although some people have trouble without cushioning...everyone is different. If you are only dealing with an inflamed nerve, don't be too excited to get back to "normal" life anytime soon, if you want to win this thing. Be patient. It takes time. Lots of it. A damaged nerve can take years to heal depending on the amount of damage and the type of damage.