Why do I even go to doctors for running injuries?

Try some stretching, ice, and maybe a few weeks of rest.

Over the years I have been to doctors dozens of times for running injuries. Not once I have gotten anything of value from it.

Honestly, you'll get better advice by posting here.

I've been to the doctor twice for running-related injuries. Both times, they couldn't figure out what was wrong with me (peeing blood & another time testicles were hurting), but I got on the boards and did some research and found what I needed.

If you suggest you'd like to try something a little more aggressive than sitting on the couch for six weeks with a bag of ice, they look at you like you have 7 heads.

Realistically the doctor should be your last resort. It should be first nature for you to come onto this board and try to figure out what your injury is.

Charlie Stache wrote:

What a complete waste of time. Does anyone find that ortho's or sports medicine doctors actually helped you with a running injury?

My visit today confirmed that I'm best sticking to the Letsrun search tool & home remedies.

Yes, a bunch of runners that don't know physiology, pathophysiology, nor about any of the organ systems will know more about sports injuries than a person with either:

Orthopod: 4 years medicine+5 years orthopedic surgery residency + (potentially) 1 year of sports medicine fellowship

Sports medicine doctor: 4 years medicine+3 years family medicine residency (although there are many ways to get a sports medicine fellowship)+1 year of sports medicine fellowship.

Makes cents. Your welcome.

(Yes, written that way on purpose to those that are too dull to notice sarcasm)

Yes. I tend to have a certain need for doctors when I break bones.

Doctors are a complete waste of time and money for pretty much and sports injury short of an ligament tear that needs to be repaired surgically.

I just can't stress enough how completely and utterly useless they are.

Waistoftime wrote:

Yes, a bunch of runners that don't know physiology, pathophysiology, nor about any of the organ systems will know more about sports injuries than a person with either:

Orthopod: 4 years medicine+5 years orthopedic surgery residency + (potentially) 1 year of sports medicine fellowship

Sports medicine doctor: 4 years medicine+3 years family medicine residency (although there are many ways to get a sports medicine fellowship)+1 year of sports medicine fellowship.

Makes cents. Your welcome.

(Yes, written that way on purpose to those that are too dull to notice sarcasm)

You're the idiot if you think schooling translates into competence in any arena.

Waistoftime wrote:

Charlie Stache wrote:

What a complete waste of time. Does anyone find that ortho's or sports medicine doctors actually helped you with a running injury?

My visit today confirmed that I'm best sticking to the Letsrun search tool & home remedies.

Yes, a bunch of runners that don't know physiology, pathophysiology, nor about any of the organ systems will know more about sports injuries than a person with either:

Orthopod: 4 years medicine+5 years orthopedic surgery residency + (potentially) 1 year of sports medicine fellowship

Sports medicine doctor: 4 years medicine+3 years family medicine residency (although there are many ways to get a sports medicine fellowship)+1 year of sports medicine fellowship.

Makes cents. Your welcome.

(Yes, written that way on purpose to those that are too dull to notice sarcasm)

15 years of various running injuries tells me that the education you tout so highly has done nothing for me.

Seeing podiatrist, orthopedist, and sports medicine doctors has mostly been a waste of time.

I did see a a chiropractor for active release therapy on my IT band. 3 visits in 2 weeks and he made huge improvement.

In most cases you're right but if your knee for example is hurting and you suspect a meniscus tear the only way you'll know is to get an MRI. To get one of those you need a doc. To repair the tear you'll need a doc too. But yes you can diagnose most running injuries yourself with a little common sense and a Google search. Once in awhile you can even get lucky here.

Waistoftime wrote:

Yes, a bunch of runners that don't know physiology, pathophysiology, nor about any of the organ systems will know more about sports injuries than a person with either:

Orthopod: 4 years medicine+5 years orthopedic surgery residency + (potentially) 1 year of sports medicine fellowship

Sports medicine doctor: 4 years medicine+3 years family medicine residency (although there are many ways to get a sports medicine fellowship)+1 year of sports medicine fellowship.

You've explained why sports medicine is so expensive. Now explain why it's so bad.

Sports medicine is bad because a lot of doctors are not on top of clinical research. They still use only x-rays when they suspect a stress fracture, they miss serious but recently-discovered injuries like labral tears and sports hernias, and they have no concept of what injury recovery timelines are like in the real world because they have essentially zero experience with competitive athletes. Remember, most of the patients they see, even at a sports medicine clinic, are 40-50 year old weekend-warrior types.

I only bother with a doctor if I can't figure out what is wrong, or if I know I need some type of diagnostic test (MRI usually). And even then, I ONLY go to see good doctors who I trust, and who work with competitive runners on a regular basis. My go-to orthopedist was a DI scholarship runner at a major conference school.

agreed. the vast majority of the time doctors are completely useless when it comes to running injuries.

The vast majority of running injuries are routine, and don't require a doctor's care. If an injury doesn't go away in a reasonable time, however, it's worth having things checked out, as only a doctor can refer you for an MRI, XRay, or similar. For example, I had a stress fracture of the pubic ramus once. I thought it was an abdominal strain, and was treating it as one. I wasn't going to ever figure that one out on my own.

Why should a doctor help you damage yourself with running 100 mpw year after year? That's against the hippocratic oath.

I became pretty disillusioned with my orthopedic guy because the only suggestions he ever had were surgery (meniscus tear that turned out to not be a meniscus tear at all, but severe chondromalacia) or shooting synvisc into my knee. The unnecessary arthroscopic surgery on my knee has done a world of damage that I am still recovering from 3 years later. Never any ideas about figuring out why I have injuries that love to migrate from foot (plantar fasciitis, achilles tendinosis) to knee (IT band and chondromalacia) to butt (piriformis probs). I finally consulted with someone who helped me fix my biomechanical deficiencies. It still takes work and is hard to find someone good, but you can learn to help yourself. Two helpful books are Anatomy for Runners by Jay Dicharry and The Running Injury Recovery Program by Bruce Wilk. I have also finally found a good PT who really gets this stuff and doesn't just zap my sore spots with electric stim and ultrasound and hand me an ice bag.

Waistoftime wrote:

Charlie Stache wrote:

What a complete waste of time. Does anyone find that ortho's or sports medicine doctors actually helped you with a running injury?

My visit today confirmed that I'm best sticking to the Letsrun search tool & home remedies.

Yes, a bunch of runners that don't know physiology, pathophysiology, nor about any of the organ systems will know more about sports injuries than a person with either:

Orthopod: 4 years medicine+5 years orthopedic surgery residency + (potentially) 1 year of sports medicine fellowship

Sports medicine doctor: 4 years medicine+3 years family medicine residency (although there are many ways to get a sports medicine fellowship)+1 year of sports medicine fellowship.

Makes cents. Your welcome.

(Yes, written that way on purpose to those that are too dull to notice sarcasm)

The issue isn't lack of education, it's lack of experience with running specific injuries. Your local high school football team probably provides about half of your nearest ortho's patient load. The other half are mostly old people who need new joints. Then once or twice per year, a runner shows up at the office with an injury that isn't related to being 80 years old or getting run over by a linebacker.

Whatever education you have, you need to have experience with a condition to diagnose and treat it. Your average ortho simply doesn't deal with enough runners to understand running related injuries. Just as you'd go to an oncologists who specializes in hematological malignancies if you have leukemia, you need to go to someone who concentrates on running injuries if you have one.