PT appt in the morning. Met Steve Orrock. He didn't agree with Dr. McLane's latest theory of the sciatic running through the piriformis because when I stretched the piri it didn't generate the pain. He was able to (very craftily!) replicate the pain radiating down my leg, and at that point started to think it has a sciatic component. He dug hard into my bum and my upper ham, so I felt like I was getting my money's worth. He had me do some type of stress test on the bike: 5 min easy spin with little resistance, then increase resistance to slight uphill feel, then increase the resistance every minute five times, at 11 minutes go up of my seat at that high resistance and bike for 5 more minutes, then 2 min easy spin w little resistance to cool down. Got my heart rate up to 178 at the end (he didn't tell me to, but I measured during the 2 minute easy cool down). I am not sure what he was testing, except perhaps how out of shape I was. It was nice to have athletic trainers standing around while I breathe hard and work up a sweat. Then he had me walk on the treadmill to look at my gait, then had me run (not nearly long enough :)) and took camera of me. It was my first time seeing myself run on video in a long time, and it was downright shocking to see the degree to which I heel strike. I can see the whole bottom of my foot from the front view, even the heel, when I strike. It was downright ugly. Sometimes you have to see it to believe it. So walked/ran .8 there, then had to walk my car to/from the shop later in the day. My PT appt took 2 hours, and I still got in 13.55 hours of work which means I got home after 11pm last night. I was exhausted, but my bum was only slightly sore, no acute pain, which tends to come on if I work myself into the ground. I am supposed to do my PT exercises three times a day, but only did them twice. Once on a piece of grass behind a church after picking up my car in my work clothes, and once again in my work clothes at 11:15pm.
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