Day 47: Put the needle on the record

Today's task:  Turn my frown upside down

Today's outcome:  :)

Yesterday sucked.  My knee hurt and I was just plain sad all day.  It's like I've been riding this hot air balloon of excitement as we get closer to race day, and this knee pain is slowly letting the air out.  But this morning, I got a blast of hot air back in my balloon.  

I was able to get in to see the physical therapist I used to work with (thank you, Uncle and Meghan for keeping my kids so I could focus on me this morning!), and based on his findings of tight and tender muscles in my left hip (which in turn could be causing issues down at the knee), he suggested I try a technique called dry needling.  In a nutshell, a fine needle, much like those used in accupuncture, is inserted directly into the affected muscle tissue, and the physical therapist manipulates it to elicit a twitch from the muscle.  This twitch can deactivate the trigger point and release the "knot" in the muscle tissue.  I stumbled across this graphic that showed pretty much exactly where I had my treatment done:

The picture below isn't me, but the treatment went something like this:

I'll admit I was nervous about the treatment at first, but not for obvious reasons.  The needle thing doesn't bother me.  The muscle twitch doesn't bother me (it felt a lot like e-stim).  It was just the fact that I was trying something new and totally different less than two weeks before the biggest race of my life.  I put my faith in Rob and allowed him to make me his human pin cushion.  We finished up the treatment with a little massage (the digging kind, not the oooooh that's lovely kind) and a patch that delivers an anti-inflammatory right to the painful spot:

I left the clinic feeling sore, yet optimistic.  I have zero expectations of being 100% pain free from start to finish of this race, but I am merely hoping I do not have to hobble through most of it.  I now have an entire team of people working to keep me Psimas Pstrong, and I am eternally grateful for them all.  And if someone wants to show up on the race course with this sign, I'll love you forever, too:

Amazing.  And since my sense of humor has returned for the moment, I'll leave you with this: