Originally written in German. Translated to English by AI — please excuse any awkward phrasing.
Can it get any worse than the week before???
The answer is:
…
…
…
yes 🙁
Training was basically out of the question — other than some strength training, very little happened during the week.
Still: I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Things started looking up over the weekend, mostly because I finally found a doctor who could and actually wanted to help me.
It might surprise some of you that it turned out to be a dentist: Dr. Nölting from Wiesloch. He confirmed what I and my physio had suspected — I have a “Craniomandibular Dysfunction”, or CMD for short. Simply put, this is a misalignment of the jaw, which can then affect the neck and back — which in my case it impressively does. Every time I close my mouth or bite down, my spine and pelvis shift. As a further consequence, I suddenly have legs of different lengths. My body was able to compensate for this up to a point, but at some point the load became too much, and that’s what I’m experiencing right now.
What happens next? First I’ll get a splint for the lower jaw that lets me bite in a position that doesn’t affect the rest of my body. Then they’ll work on building up the teeth so I can eventually go without the splint. The whole process will take a while.
A first osteopathic treatment from Dr. Nölting also had its effect. Just a few hours later, I finally had the pain where it belonged: in my jaw — and no longer in my back and Achilles tendon. Also, my bite has completely changed since then. My jaw finally wants to go where it belongs — not where it was forced for years.
All of that happened last Wednesday. Since then things have been looking up. Thursday through Saturday I was in Berlin, also completely without training. I got off the plane on Saturday with shaky legs — withdrawal symptoms. Too little movement does not work for me 😉 At noon I wanted to calm my legs down and went for a nearly 1.5h ride. The first time in weeks without pain — and even better: no pain afterward! On Sunday I sat on the bike for 4h again, also almost pain-free. OK, admittedly it was hell (why do you lose fitness so fast??????????) … but I was still super happy.
Let’s hope the trend continues upward.