The day I ran my first half-marathon, or wait, should that be "the" half-marathon since there has only been one? Is that one word, "first" a subtle indicator by my swiftly typing fingers that I intend to run more races of half-marathon or longer length? It's really depended on my knee for a good while now. My right knee, that started hurting with a pain I liked to call at the beginning, "a little dinky pain" but turned into something much more later on.
November fourth and we're running in the race and pain appears and I've never had pain in my knee before. And then it goes away several miles later. But it comes back. "Damn this pain, what is going on?" Then it goes away again and we finish the race and, oh yeah, we rock, and I forgot all about the knee.
But it didn't forget about me. The pain came back from time to time. I had discussions with my neighbor who is a physician and we agreed I should try NSAIDs because it didn't sound like it was damaged. I had had no damaging event. So I took Advil and Aleve as needed or in preparation of a run. But the pain followed me. Not every run, but some of them. And other things like sitting in certain positions and it would hit me hard when I stood up. Sometimes, after a run it would hurt the rest of the day. Was I injured? Was I injuring myself more? Did I want to know if it meant I had to stop running?
Yes, I did want to know. I had meniscus repair in 2004 and it was completely successful, I had to look for scars to remember which knee it was on. Guess which one? The one with the newly bothersome, non-dinky, situational knee pain. Damn.
After having to stop running twice due to pain that bothered me so much I couldn't pretend nothing was wrong, I made an appointment with my surgeon from 2004. An X-Ray and his mobility tests showed nothing wrong. He talked to me about my physical activities and speculated I was dealing with a phenomenon that happens to athletes who focus on one sport. Did you hear that? He said, "athlete." At almost forty-three I didn't hear the next two sentences because just over a year ago climbing stairs was a tiring event and my friends like to tell me how I'm old.
Where was I? Ah yes, athletes who don't cross train perhaps as much as they should. So go get some exercises from this sports medicine physical therapy group and do some other activities like biking for a month to see if it gets better. But...if it gets worse, call back and he'll have an MRI called in.
I was skeptical. I believed it was a meniscus tear because of how behaved. And clearly I have vast tracts of knowledge in both medicine and orthopedic surgery. So I must be right. Then, I got sick.
Two weeks and no running. Not much of anything but resting and nose blowing. When I'm better I can't help it, I need to run. I need to see if my muscles have done some correcting with the time off as suggested. That was the day I ran and ran and debated running even more but eventually came in at ten miles. And all without pain...until the moment I stopped running.
I walked in the house, took walking steps and, OW! What in the world? OW! I had to limp. I limped for over a day and my knee didn't want to be bent. Damn, I had hurt myself and I am a stupid oaf and I should have known better and it's got to be a meniscus tear. Damn.
The next day I call and get an MRI scheduled. And then, while I waited for the scheduling office to call me back, the pain went away. The scheduling office isn't moving at a fast pace, phone calls ensue, my son has abscess surgery and I forget about the MRI and then I remember and call again. Oh, and the pain went away. Completely. That's strange.
MRI scheduled but I go and run more and nope, no pain. Or so little that two Advil before the run and I don't need anything after the run and it doesn't start hurting later. Maybe there's some cartridge that's moved out of the way for now?
I have the MRI and the next day, wait, did I mention I'm about to go on a Ski trip next week and this was Monday? So yes, MRI on Monday and my dreams of skiing are crumbling. I get a phone call on Tuesday from the surgeon's nurse, unexpectedly and she says, "I have your MRI results. You have a meniscus tear. Can you come in tomorrow for a review of the results and are you available next week for surgery?"
Okay, that sounds scary. It sounds like my knee is about to fall in or give way or go out or something. "No, I can't do surgery next week because I'm on a ski trip, but could I still come in and see him so I can understand my limitations before surgery? Okay, and you have an opening on the 20th for surgery, sure, we're back and I'll take that slot."
The next day as I wait in the waiting room at the doctor's office I am decidedly anxious. They take my normally very low blood pressure twice because it's high. The Physician's Assistant comes in to review surgery details. He explains that I have a "Complex Medial Meniscus tear" Wait, medial? No, no, I don't have medial pain (medial is the inside of your knee) I explain that I have no medial pain, my pain is in a specific lateral area (on the outside of my knee.)
He looks confused, has me put on their examination shorts so the doctor can look at my knee and manipulate it and talk to me. The doctor comes in, messes around with my knee. We discuss how I have no medial pain, have never had medial pain, only this one spot laterally. He says, "come out here and look at this MRI with me."
I look at that MRI and I have a medial meniscus tear. And apparently it's "complex" but I don't have any problems there. He said, "Well, good news, you don't need surgery. We don't treat asymptomatic issues and you're fine"
So what's with the lateral side pain issues I've been having? He still thinks that's the problem he mentioned before with the development of the muscles. So it's cross training and exercises from the physical therapist in the future.
And what about the meniscus tear that wasn't bothering me? Can I ski next week? He says, "Absolutely." And train for more races, I ask? He says, "I don't see why not." Can I explain at this point how animated and excited I got? We were all smiling in the exam room. I did talk with him about symptoms I should be aware of in the future if a problem does develop. Clicking, popping, weakness, my knee giving out and, of course, pain. And so far, I have zero of those.
That was yesterday, so ski trip, here I come. Marathon? To be decided...
The Big Boy Update: Limp? Two days ago after lunch at the park we noticed he had a slight limp. Was it sand in his shoe? Had he grown out of his sneakers? Was there something smelly in his pants? It was none of those things and the limp persists, two days later with no apparent cause. We've asked him what hurts but nothing seems to be bothering him. Maybe he's adopted a cowboy swagger.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: "Pow Pow" This means she wants powder. She's had a diaper rash for several days and the powder feels good. And now she knows how to ask for it.
Fitness Update: Six and Six more, again. What with the happy determination that I do not need surgery on my knee, I ran six miles in celebration with Uncle Jonathan yesterday afternoon and then another six with my neighbor this morning. I packed a lot of happy and relief into those twelve miles.
Someone Once Said: This is Freedom Hall, my dear. Everyone does as he pleases…then if he does something I don’t like, I kick him the hell out.
Congrats!
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