Injured

A few weeks ago, I hurt myself during CrossFit. I don’t like telling people this, because a lot of non-CrossFitters shake their heads and sigh about how dangerous CrossFit is, and how they hear about so many injuries as a result of it. The thing is—there are common injuries associated with nearly every sport out there. Soccer, football, gymnastics, RUNNING. Things that people do every damn day. CrossFit is no different. And here’s the thing: as “dangerous” as CrossFit is…

…I’m pretty sure I hurt myself getting up off of the damn floor.

That’s when I felt the first shooting pain go through the inside of my knee. It was in the middle of a WOD (workout of the day), and I had been doing an abdominal exercise on the floor. I went to get up, pushing myself off of the floor with both my hands and feet (like in a “crab walk” position at first, I guess, before leaning forward to get up), and boom. Ouch.

So I don’t even have a good story. I wasn’t back squatting 200 lbs. or doing 100 thrusters. Nope. Just getting up off the floor, just as I would if I was playing with my kids.

Anyway, I felt the shooting pain in my knee but it never bothered me to bear weight on it. I was able to finish the workout, despite feeling a little pain in the knee if I twisted/rotated my knee a certain way. And I went on with my day, occasionally noticing the pain again when I tried to sit or move a certain way, or whatever. I thought that I had just tweaked something and that it would work itself out. No big deal. This was on a Wednesday.

On Friday, I went back to CrossFit as usual and did the WOD (for fellow CrossFitters, it was the CFG Open 15.5). I didn’t have any problems with anything in the warm-up or even during the WOD—which DID involve thrusters (which involves squatting down with a barbell and then thrusting it high over your head as you stand up). I felt good except for a few little tweaks here and there. But I “rest” on the weekends, and I noticed that even with rest, I was feeling it. By Sunday, it was hurting more than it had, and I was finding it a little difficult to walk—not because of the weight-bearing, but because of the walking motion itself. It was hurting me to straighten my knee.

So what did I do? I went back to CrossFit on Monday. The WOD was an EMOM, squat cleans. Actually a really FUN one! In hindsight, that probably wasn’t my best idea. Oops. But honestly, I still wasn’t hurting during workouts. In fact, it was bothering me LESS during the workout than it was during everyday life. Growing up, in sports and whatever, I was always that kid who didn’t tell her coach about any little twinges, aches or pains because I didn’t want to be pulled out of the game. And it’s the same now: I JUST WANT TO KEEP PLAYING.

However, I’m also an adult now, with a fairly level head, and I’m smart enough to know that it’s better to take it easy for the short term so that I don’t completely screw myself for the long term. So when I started hurting—actually up further, more in my hamstring—on Monday night, I knew I needed to do something different. I contacted an old friend from high school who happens to be an orthopedic physician assistant. She doesn’t practice locally, but I described to her my issue via Facebook message and asked her to diagnose me. (Not really. But I did want her advice.) She said that it could be anything, most likely a sprain, but that the pain I was describing was also characteristic of a torn meniscus. She told me to lay off of all exercises involving legs.

Do you know how hard it is to workout without using your legs?

I went to CrossFit as scheduled on Wednesday, but did a completely modified workout (different from what everyone else was doing that day). “Rested” Thursday through Sunday for the holiday weekend—as much as a mom of two little ones can rest—but was in pain the whole time. My freaking hamstring was bothering me more than anything now, although I was still experiencing pain on the inside of the knee when moving it certain ways. The ache has been so bad that it sometimes keeps me up at bedtime. I’ve been using essential oils on my knee and Deep Blue Rub (also from doTERRA) on my hamstring to help the pain.

Sunday night, I messaged my old friend again and said that it was still bothering me really badly. She said to get myself to an ortho. This past Monday morning, I called and totally lucked out—they had a cancellation for Tuesday (yesterday). I had heard it could take 3-4 weeks to get in for an appointment, but I only had to wait a day!

I went yesterday. They took x-rays, then I was examined by the PA. She manipulated my knee and leg a lot of different ways but it didn’t hurt that badly, to be honest. The doctor came in and talked to me about my symptoms, the “cause” of the injury (I demonstrated for him how I got up off of the floor that day), and then did some of the same manipulations that the PA had done. But then he asked me to turn over on my stomach. He started pushing on different areas at my knee and in my hamstring and my response was “AH! OW! EE!” He had found the source of the pain. And guess what? It’s not even a knee injury.

It’s my hamstring.

There is a tendon that apparently runs from your hamstring down to the inside of your knee. He suspects I did something to that tendon and/or the hamstring muscle—a strain. But because of that hamstring tendon connecting to the knee, that’s why initially, I felt pain in the knee. It radiated up to the back of my hamstring as the injury progressed because “fluid” (swelling) progressed up that way. Now, if you are an ortho or have ortho experience, I apologize if what I explained is wrong or I sound like an idiot, but this was my understanding of the issue.

Now? Physical therapy. And continued modifications for all of my CrossFit workouts. And time.

I started PT this morning and can I just say that it sucks? I hate it. It hurts. It feels like there is no way that these activities could possibly make my hamstring feel better. I’m only going to PT once a week but I have “homework exercises” that I’m supposed to do every day and I don’t even want to. I will, of course, but I don’t wanna.

It’s funny because all of these medical professionals keep asking me to rate my pain, 1 being not bad at all to 10 being the worst pain I’ve ever experienced. I have not rated this injury above a 4. My PT this morning was like, “Only a 3-4?” I laughed a little and responded, “Well, I’ve done two unmedicated births and a busted appendix. After that, everything else seems trivial.” She said that you can always tell the women who’ve had babies because their ratings for their pain are much lower! :)

The ortho said it could be a few months before my hamstring feels normal again. The PT said that tissue healing typically takes 4-6 weeks and then you have to ease yourself back into your normal activities.

I’m so, so relieved that it doesn’t appear to be anything torn in the knee, but it’s still a bummer to be injured, especially when I was feeling so good about CrossFit, challenging myself and enjoying it. Hopefully PT and time do the trick so I can be back to my normal self sooner rather than later!

For now, I’m just wallowing in feeling old. Enjoy your young muscles and joints while you have them, kids! :)