This past January I suffered an injury doing yoga. This morning I am finally going to see an Orthopedic Doc about it.
I work in the emergency department as an RN and all of my coworkers are always joking around about how there will be a day when they will be taking care of me for some kind of injury from kiteboarding, or surfing, or skating.
So when I came into the department limping with my leg wrapped up they were not surprised. What they were surprised to hear was that my injuries were from practicing yoga.
Like many of you (I am sure) I follow some amazing yogis and athletes on social media. I am inspired by them and in my mind I like to imagine myself attaining that level of mastery.
I have an almost daily practice of yoga but none of the positions that I do would look super cool in photos. Which obviously, is not the point, but... ehhh who doesn't want to do those totally awesome moves when you are on upside down! It looks so cool! I decided to go for it and learn some inversions and signed up for an arm balancing workshop.
The workshop was 3 hours long and I was pumped.
The workshop was amazing and I was learning some useful techniques for some basic balances that are super cool looking. We started with a nice long warm up and stretch to prepare the body for contorting. I was about mid-way through the workshop practicing a form called “FLYING PIGEON” when I heard a loud pop and felt my toes go numb after a sharp shooting pain sent down my shin. For the rest of the day I had trouble walking, and by the evening my whole lower leg was swollen.
I hobbled into the ER the following day to discuss my injuries with my co-workers. This is one of the perks of working in the medical profession; you get free medical examinations from your co-workers. I was reassured by an Osteopathic MD that I could use the RICE method Rest Ice Compression Elevation for a couple of weeks and take anti-inflammatory medications and that it would likely heal on it's own. He did not feel it was necessary to get an xray at the time, but did encourage me to see a specialist if I was still having pain in 6-8 weeks.
So, here we are in May... eeemmmm a little over due. And I am in pain still. I have an appointment this morning and I will likely be scheduled for an MRI as soon as I can.
One of the things I feel useful in mentioning about this story is that I feel like the Yoga instructor did not emphasize the importance of protecting your joints when in poses like Flying Pigeon. In fact, she was shouting out encouragingly to all the students to motivate us to push harder. I got caught up in the excitement of it all and pushed too hard. As it turns out, injuries when attempting Flying Pigeon are quite common. The Yoga instructor should be aware of the risks her students are at when attempting difficult and dangerous poses and emphasize caution as the most important aspect in attempting challenging moves.
At 35 years old I am no longer invincible. My body breaks. My body doesn't heal quickly. My excitement and adrenaline need to be equally met by my caution and protection of the only body that I have.
Lets hope that whatever is affecting my knee can be repaired.
And I hope in reading this story you will not make the same mistakes as I did.
Wish me luck!