$107 to find out I have a weak bum!

So about a week and a half after the marathon my knees were still bothering me, especially when doing a lot of walking. I decided to go see a Physio to see what was wrong as I would like to be able to run again sometime in the near future - preferably before our Triathlon on 19th October! A physio is pretty expensive here, $132 for an initial 45 minute appointment where I went, but we have private health insurance so I thought the majority of the cost would be covered.

Australia's health care system is based on Medicare, which covers a lot of basic medical costs. Australia has a reciprocal health care agreement with the UK, so we were able to get Medicare cards as soon as we got here. However, it was a requirement of the 457 visa, our original visa, to have private health insurance as well. We had the Overseas Visitors cover from Bupa, which was a pricey $200/month for the two of us, for things like hospital and ambulance cover. When we became Permanent Residents here we were able to switch over our health insurance to a cheaper plan that also gave us some 'extras' coverage, like eye glasses, dentist, physio, etc. Anyone over the age of 31 has to have private health insurance in Australia. If you wait until you are older you pay a premium on the cost, depending on how long you waited after your 31st birthday. It is a way to encourage people to take out hospital cover at a younger age.

On our overview of our extras from Bupa it says that 70% of the cost of physio is covered. So I thought, great, I'm going go the the physio and pay about $40 for my appointment. WRONG! Unfortunately I neglected to read the fine print and that 70% coverage only applies if I go to a Bupa Members First Provider, which I did not do. (I basically just picked the closest physio to our place). Because I didn't go to one of their providers, they only cover $25 for your first visit, and $17 for every subsequent visit. I didn't find this out until they handed me my bill of $107 after my appointment. Yikes! Moral of the story: Always read the fine print!

The good news is I haven't done any damage to my knee joint, and what I have is ITB Friction Syndrome. Apparently it is a common cause of Runner's Knee, due to a tight IT Band and overuse. Training for a marathon will do that. The IT Band runs down the outside of your thigh from your butt to your knee, and can become tight due to a muscular inbalance or weakness - in my case it is due to weak gluts (my butt). The physio gave me a few exercises to do based on the 'Clam' as demonstrated here:

Hopefully a few weeks of the clam and I will be back on my feet! I am supposed to go back to the physio next week, but that will be about another $100 and I'm not sure it is worth it. She said I would only have to go 3-4 times as the injury is not that serious, which to me means that I don't really need to go back, as long as I keep up with the exercises, and no running for a few more weeks :(