A.R.T.

Do you recall October of 2011?  That is when my cousin Taryn ran that marathon like a rock star.  It was also when I first developed shin splints-- the worst, non surgical/ major injury, ever.  To support Taryn on her run, I signed on to keep her company for ½ the run thinking I could just do a couple of weeks of longer runs and be ready for it.  Wrong.  I think I would have been better off just up and running 13 miles without any “prep” at all.  I was in pretty good running condition and able to run an easy 5 miles at any given moment.  But once I started to do 7 or 8 mile runs a couple times a week,,I found myself with a case of the shin splints.  I tried to ignore them. I even got in 17 miles with Tar Bear.  But these suckers stuck with me.  

             --Insert T's marathon picture here.. if I had one ;(  --

After the Chicago Marathon, I took a month off and iced my shins a lot.  I thought rest  and ice were the answer.  Wrong. I tried to roll the bottom of my foot on top of a golf ball. Which might have been an answer if in fact my shins weren't so bad.  I’ll tell you what else isn’t the answer.  Running after a month after concluding I was stuck with these shin splints forever, and I just had to learn to live with them.  Since giving up running was not an option, I picked up right where I left off.  I even convinced myself that running a spring half marathon was a good idea.  

I started training in January with my running partner, Leanne.  If there ever was a cure for shin splints, this wasn’t it.  Just days before our scheduled half marathon, I found myself in tears on an easy 3 mile jog.  After run-walking the first mile and a half, I called it quits.  I questioned what the point of doing a ½ marathon was if I wasn’t going to beat my first time, and I could quite possibly injure myself and never run again.  It wasn’t worth it.  Being a competitor, this was a tough decision for me.  Looking back on it, I’m glad I didn’t do it.  

Two weeks later, I walked 39.3 miles in two days in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer with my sister.  Now that, that was worth it.  Though I crossed the finish line with tape up and down both legs, I was proud of myself for the accomplishment.  Had I pushed myself through that half-marathon, I probably wouldn’t have made it through one day of the Breast Cancer walk.  

Two weeks after that, I found myself with an injury I could not overlook.  I could not ignore.  I could not run. I could not play softball. I could not even get myself a glass of water.  I sprained my ACL sliding into home plate. 

… gross!  My right knee was four times the size of my left.  I spent 6 weeks in physical therapy and saw a little progress.  But my knee was still swollen and I was frustrated with the activities and tasks I couldn’t complete.

This is when I turned to Dr. Amanda Karm, my savior, for a little TLC.  Amanda is my good friend and happens to be a chiropractor!   I went in to see Amanda to cure my shin splints with a little technique called A.R.T-- Active Release Therapy.  My friend Rachel had ranted and raved about this method, claiming it to be the answer to all my problems.  She was not lying.  

I visited Amanda once a week to receive abuse and that wonderful good pain relief on my shins & my knee (bonus).  She drained my knee (ouch) and taped me up like an Olympian trend-setter with Kinesio tape weekly.  She cleared me to workout & run!  I would.  And then when I felt the pain come back, she fixed me again and sent me on my way.  

What is ART you may be wondering.  Basically it is a massage for this little muscles in your body that no one really pays attention to.  She rubs them and moves them in a way to release the tension or strain that I have been putting on them for a very long time.  --That’s the medical definition, obviously.

I am proud to say that I haven’t been back to visit Amanda since mid-November.  Though I am no longer paying for our friendship, ART + Dr. Karm cured me.  I still have some knee pain and muscle tightness that I solve my giant foam roller-- second only to the doc herself.  

And now here’s my plug.  Chiropractors are the answer to all the weird things wrong with your body that you may be too ashamed to mention to anyone else.  Don't tell me about em, I'll judge you.  Amanda won’t judge you. Go visit her at ActiveCare.