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First thing first, I do not think I am making a lot of progress. Today, 3 weeks since my last post, I do not think I have made much of an improvement. Maybe a reason for that could be my winter camping trip last week. 7 days of sleeping in snow, pulling the sled, breaking trails, snowshoeing every day for 4-5 hours, I guess that was too much. Extreme cold weather (between -25C and -45C all the time) took its tool too. First 2 days of the trip were the hardest ones. Pulling 2 sleds and collecting firewood caused my core, hips and groins to get sore. But after 2 days it went back to normal, I was able to snowshoe for 4-5 hours every day without issues. At that point I thought that the trip was a good idea.

I saw Kevin on Tuesday, 2 days after the trip. He worked on the flexibility of my right hip. I am way more flexible on the left side than on the right one. That is something I will have to focus on in the following weeks.

The difference with pain this week is that I can locate a spot left from the Pubic Symphysis that hurts the most. Kind of sharp but more isolated pain. I wonder if I have stress fracture there. I am thinking about going back to dr. David Lee to hear his opinion.

The Physio guy cancelled this week’s appointment and rescheduled it for 2 weeks from now. I am thinking about looking for another physiotherapist.

I keep doing yoga stretches every day as well as core exercises (except the camping trip time). This week I did 30 seconds of skipping rope. I am not even sure why I tried that. Also twice this week I rode the horizontal bike for 5 minutes. I gained 8lb since I stopped running. I have to start paying more attention to what I eat and think about some cardio workout.

Here is the first set of exercises that I got from my physiotherapist. I have been doing them for the last 2 weeks. I have not had any pain while doing them. Clamshells, I am doing this one without a theraband.

First things first, I am making progress. I am definitely making progress. Not as fast as I would like, but I can feel the improvement. I can almost do a situp without any pain, when I get up after sitting longer it is not as bad as it used to be,… What bothers me is that I still feel a slight sensation above the pubic bone when I get up and it stays while I walk. Looks like that one will be hard to get rid of. Once I get rid of that pain, I will be able to say that I am healed.

I saw Kevin twice in the last two weeks. Nothing new there. The same treatment as before. But we both can see that I am more flexible now. He can put more pressure when he does his work.

I went to see Sean, the physiotherapist. He gave me 4 exercises to do every day. It takes me 15 minutes to go through them.

1. Clamshells 2×10 on both side

2. Glute bridge 2×10

3. Bird Dog 2×10

4. Recruitment Transversus Abdominal 2×10

I can do them all without any pain. Although I am not sure if I am doing the last one right. It is so hard to isolate transverse abdominals. I will see Sean again on Wednesday, I hope that he will add some harder exercises.

Last week we got a load of snow, just over one foot. As a result of hard shovelling, I got “faset irritation” or sharp pain in lower back. Today, 5 days later, I feel better.

In the last 2 weeks I had 3 chiropractor treatments. I told Kevin about my issues during the walk. He explained that it is somehow expected behavior due to muscles suddenly being released and that is their reaction. At least that is how I understood it. But he was not really too concerned about that.

Nothing new about chiropractor’s treatment. Kevin used dry needles for 5 minutes to relax the muscles and then ART to “soften” the pelvic area. I would say that I am making progress in my recovery. Adductors pain is getting better,  pain during sit-ups is very low, still pain when I lift both legs together, but not as much as before. I still feel pain between the legs (inside the tights) and in lower abdominal area when I get up from the chair at work after a longer sitting. It will still need time to heal completely.

One thing that I have started doing every day for the last 2 weeks is yoga, or more exactly, yin yoga. A definition of yin yoga, from Wikipedia is this:

“Yin yoga is a slow-paced style of yoga with poses, or asanas, that are held for longer periods of time—five minutes or longer per pose is typical.”

Basically, I have been doing very long stretches of the adductors, hip flexors, hamstrings, gluteus,…. Once a week I do yoga with a yoga instructor and the other 6 days I do it following youtube videos. I plan to continue doing this at least 5 times a week until I fully recover, and then continue doing it 2-3 times a week.

My favorite youtube yin yoga videos are the following three:

1. Yin Yoga Class (40 Minutes) – Deep stretch yoga for cyclists, runners, hikers, athletes

2. Yin Yoga for Runners – Hips and Hamstrings

3. Yin Yoga Open Hips

As advised from Kevin, next week I have an appointment with Sean, the physiotherapist. He works together with Kevin, so he will get all necessary information from him. I expect that at that point I will start working on strengthening muscles in pelvic and groin area.
We also talked about a test run. We decided to postpone it for after my winter camping trip (February 14-20). I can expect to go for a test run first week of March.

10 days later and after 3 visits to the chiropractor, here is what is going on.
After only the first visit, I would say that 40% of the pain was gone. I was able to do a sit-up, and some other symptoms were gone. After the second visit, I felt great. almost 95% recovered. No symptoms at all. I went to the third treatment very optimistic. That one was the same as the previous two. Dry needles to relax the core and adductor muscles for 5-10 minutes, and then Kevin’s fingers and ART. Very painful. After the treatment Kevin told me that he was surprised how fast I was recovering. He also told me that I might be able to go for a test run beginning of February. He mentioned that in 2 weeks I should start seeing Sean, the physiotherapist to work on my core. Everything sounded so great, I spent that entire Saturday reading running books and planning my race season including the winter camping trip. No pain at all, nor any OP symptoms.

Then yesterday, I went for a walk with my wife. A 1 hour walk in the local park on snow covered paths with some hills. It was a slow, relaxing walk with occasional stops. During the walk and right after the walk I started feeling pain in lower core muscles. It was not as bad as it was 2 weeks ago, but it was there. Also, getting up from the sitting position caused dull pain on the top of the pubic bone and around groins. What is different from before is that, this time the dull pain is not gone after 10-15 steps, it is there all the time. I would say that it is 75% of what I felt before. Today, during the entire day, the dull pain was there all the time, getting worse when I get up from my chair at work.

I have an appointment scheduled with Kevin tomorrow.

Today I went to see my chiropractor at GRSM. Kevin is an experienced and knowledgeable chiropractor who helped me last year with my left achilles tendon issue.

My first impression was very positive. Kevin demonstrated that he is familiar with this type of injury. First 20 minutes we spent assessing the situation. After that I went to the table. Kevin found that my adductors and core muscles were very tight and as far as I understood that, the plan was to work on releasing these muscles. He started with dry needles in my lower abdominal muscles and adductors for 5 minutes. It was not as painful as I was expecting it to be. Next step was to use active release technique (ART) in my groin area. That part hurt.

Kevin suggested that I come twice a week for the first 3 weeks and then we would switch to one treatment a week. He explained that still the main course of action would be rest, but his work was going to speed up the healing process. He suggested to stop doing stationary bike workouts for now. Yoga is OK and recommended.

He agreed with the sport medicine doctor that I could expect to get back to full training in 4-6 months if I am patient with the resting.

Now, 4-5 hours after the treatment, I still have the same OP symptoms, but I trust Kevin. Now I am optimistic that this injury will not drag forever and that I might run a race or two later this year.

Last night I went to see my physiotherapist at GRSM. I was expecting a lot from that appointment. I was hoping to get some information about the entire pelvic system, about the muscles and ligaments connected to the pubic symphysis,  how to release them to reduce pressure on the pubic bone, how to eliminate pain in lower abdominal muscles. But none of that happened.

What I found out is that they do not have as many patients (if any) with Osteitis Pubis, and runners that run as much as I do. As a result, they do not have almost any experience with this injury. What we accomplished was that the physiotherapist found that I have dull pain and tenderness when he presses my pubic bone (something I tried on my own but could not recreate the pain). That was another confirmation that I have Osteitis Pubis.

The physiotherapist advised to start doing an exercise for transversus abdominal muscles. 3×10 every day. He suggested that I come to see him again in 2-3 weeks. Meanwhile, he is going to talk to a chiropractor for another opinion.

I was a bit disappointed. The dull pain was still there, now more than before and I did not see a solution or anything that could lead to full recovery. I decided to skip spin class today and stop using the stationary bike at least for a week. I suspect that that is one of the reasons why I felt pain in the last 2-3 days more than before.

Update: Got a call from the chiropractor 1 hour ago. I have scheduled an appointment with him for January 2nd. This is a good thing!

What a way to start a running blog. A week ago I was diagnosed with Osteitis Pubis injury. No running for 4-6 months.

Four weeks ago (November 27^th) I started feeling dull pain in my lower abdominal area during an easy run. The pain lasted only during the first 3km. The following 3-4 runs and the same thing happened. Off and on dull pain around the pubic bone. Another symptom, every time I get up from a chair and start walking, I feel stiffness in the lower abdomen for a couple minutes. Also, when I lay down, I can not do a single situp or lift my legs together. It just causes so much pain.

On December 4^th, I went to see my family doctor who sent me to see a sport medicine specialist, Dr. Robert Lee in Waterloo Sports Medicine. Dr. Lee said that it looked like Osteitis Pubis and stress fracture of the pubic bone. He sent me to do a bone scan test. I was surprised how quickly they scheduled the test. On December 17^th I went to St. Mary hospital for the test and a day later to see Dr. Lee again for the results.

It was confirmed that I have Osteitis Pubis. Exact words from the results:

“Significant increased delayed tracer uptake and blood pool uptake is seen in the area of the symphysis pubis/pubic bones and adjacent medial superior right pubic ramus. Appearance could be seen with significant active osteitis pubis…”

Dr. Lee advised to stop running immediately (which I have already done) and to come back to see him in 2 months. If the pain is gone, he would suggest to start with some light slow running, like 2-3km at the time. Meanwhile, he told me to visit a physiotherapist. On my suggestion he approved to go to Grand River Sports Medicine (GRSM) on Strasburg Road.

So, that is my story. I did a stationary bike workout yesterday, and no pain during peddling. Looks like I will be able to continue with that.

I cannot wait December 29^th, to see Sean Meyer from GRSM to see if physiotherapy can speed up the recovery.