Last month when I checked in on my PT progress, I was dealing with a set back, followed by the start of some very early signs of progress. 

One month later, I'm really happy to say, the progress seems to be continuing for the most part. 

Literally turning a corner

At my PT appointment on Tuesday, we did a repeat evaluation of some different exercises that I really struggled with at the start of the summer. I made big improvements in all of them. 

My therapist reminded me that I'd been in therapy working with her since June, and over the course of 14 appointments and many weeks, we have built a lot of stability back into my joints, specifically in my hips. 

Unfortunately for me, my PT starts a new job next week, so Tuesday was my last appointment with her. We'd both been considering whether or not I should "graduate" from PT when she finished since I had made some really good progress.

But last week I had a pretty bad flare up in my hamstring. I can't really pinpoint what triggered it. I largely followed my PT plan and hadn't been pushing it too hard on my running intervals. My PT assured me that sometimes this happens on the long road of recovering from an injury, but it definitely made me not want to graduate just yet.

The main reason being, I didn't want her to close out my case and if things weren't resolving, I'd have to go back to the doctor for another evaluation and then start with a new PT that had no context. 

Instead, our plan is to keep my case active and transfer me to another PT. We're still trying to figure out the exact cadence of appointments going forward. I've been going weekly for a while now, and since I am making progress, I'm hoping we may be able to decrease the frequency.

I got to meet my new PT on Tuesday, and she seems to be really nice, though I will miss working with my current one. After all these months, I feel like we're finally seeing the pay off of all this work, and it's a bit of a bummer we won't be able to finish it out together. 

But in trying to focus on the positives, my hip joints are way more stable and are better able to support me in day-to-day activities. I still have a bit of instability in my right ankle that is likely playing a role in all of this, so we've added in some exercises to specifically target that.

And today for the first time in over a year, I went on an almost pain free run/walk. My running intervals have increased slowly over time and are between 3.5 -4 minutes now, with a two minute walking recovery in between. I didn't feel any real soreness, tightness or pain until the very end of the workout, and it dissipated as soon as I finished. 

I'm holding on to some cautious optimism that maybe I'm finally getting to the end of this very long and drawn out recovery.