Pain Relief & Wellness Center

Alright, I feel the time had come to do a little extra sharing.

On my blog, I have talked more than once about the effects of my hamstring injury in the fall of '11. Well, months and months passed and the healing process was slow. Truth be told, the healing was painfully slow – no pun intended.

But after Disney, my hamstring seemed to be improving. My running was seemingly on the uptick. At least, this is what I wanted to share publically.

Behind closed doors, I was setting on an ice bag after every hard run or every long run. Days would pass until the painfulness would subside.

This was basically how my spring, summer, and start of my fall went. Only a few people knew about it and they keep pushing me to do something about it. Being stubborn, I felt this was something that I could handle myself. That I didn't need help from anyone.

With about 5 weeks left until OBX I finally gave in to their efforts. I made an appointment with the Pain Relief & Wellness Center. They setup my visit to see Dr. Markel.

During this first visit, I explained my problem and he went to work on it. My first visit must have lasted 50 to 60 minutes. Then, he gave me some homework exercises to do on my own.

Before leaving, I scheduled a follow-up visit for later in that week.

Walking out the door, my hamstring did feel better but over the next few days, it seemed to be getting worse.

In the next visit we talked about what was happening and the pain that I was experiencing after the first visit. I guess he convinced me enough in his process, because I decided to stick with it.

Helping his cause was when I was racing, my hamstring actually felt pretty well. After all, during this time I ran a sub 17 5k and sub 1 hours 10 miler with tender hamstrings.

But with each visit, I also noticed that my hamstring tended to feel better and better and the soreness that came after the first few visits wasn't lasting nearly as long.

On Tuesday before my Turkey Trot 8k, I got my last treatment and then my hamstrings felt great on Thursday. I ran my fastest 8k in several years.

I am happy to say that I am also no longer needing an ice bag post any of my hard or long runs.

I have to give credit where credit is due. First, I give it to those that kept pestering me to seek help. And then, I have to give major credit to Dr. Markel for his efforts. After, that first visit I was seriously thinking it was wrong decision, but now, seeing the results, I am very happy that I did seek help and that I did stick with the program.

Runners are a stubborn breed and sometimes we think that we can do it all ourselves. I am here to say that it is okay to ask for help. Running tears our bodies down. We need people like Dr. Markel to put us back together again.

If you are experiencing issues like I was, I strongly recommend checking with the guys at "Pain Relief & Wellness Center". See if you can get on Dr. Markel's schedule. He put me back together and I am betting that he can do the same for you.

 

Sharing one thought at time,

The Cool Down Runner