Catastrophic Injuries Seem to Be the Rule

So in 2015 I was playing soccer with the kiddos and felt a sensation (not a good one) in my left knee, my non-kicking leg. I'm not calling it pain because it wasn't pain, but that day however small things changed with my knee. My doc looked at it, osteoarthritis he said, you know you're getting older you can't do the things you used to do. My catastrophic fall where both my elbows cracked happened after that during the summer. Why was I cycling still if I had injured my knee?! Well, honestly with that I am fortunate! The knee lesion did not affect the cycling. In the meantime, I had even done close to a one hundred miler without ill-effects. (92 miles, nevermind the fact that I was lost. But I've been found, gloreh halluyer). Everytime I attempted to run (falcon run 2016), play soccer (Feb. 2017, play basquetball (Oct. 2016), or any other high-impact activity even though I had my braces on to control the movement I paid the price. I continued to cycle although only on flats and only spinning and even doing super-spinning (120 rpm). I could not get the nagging injury to go away and leave me the heck alone.

Fast forward to May of 2017, our new (to us) SUV had a leak that finally had to be taken care of and caused it to die. Deader than a doornail! My wife and I discussed how we were too old for this and we should call a tow truck. Alas, with hindsight I now know better, but I couldn't see spending a bunch of money for something I could do myself. My buddy Joe and I towed it to the dealership a couple of miles away. Once there and off the chains, we still had to put it in a parking spot because the bay was chained up. Fact: Parking lots have slight inclines to alleviate runoff. Fact: An SUV weighs much more than a sedan or pick-up truck. I attempted to push that SUV into the spot all by myself at first. My strong gams from cycling helped, but my weak knee was not happy. This time both knees were affected or strained! I tried taking it easy all the while still going to work. I tried carrying a staff to support myself. The pain was intense. I tried to stay off of them. I tried taking the ramp down and I had to stop mid ramp. Stairs were better, because with the staff and the banister I was able to help myself. But with the staff my employer forced me to get a prescribed staff (one month with the staff). That month was over at the beginning of July. I decided to give it an extra month just to be safe before I started back to exercise. That month was over at the beginning of August. My wife and I had tried to restart our walking regime, but the first time it was still painful and the second time we over-did it. Meanwhile in South Texas temperatures have been way too high. Ambient temp was at 120° F. This is not the desert! These are the coastal plains. So here it is Aug and I didn't have plan!

How do I fix my knee?! I landed on a site that pushed quad strengthening that even brought up the fact that quad strengthening agravates your knees, but did not answer the quandry. Next I tried to learn what I could about the knee from WebMD etc. I presented with pain in the Medial Meniscus and the Medial Cruciate Ligament in the right knee. In my left knee the one that clicks there was pain at the back at the joint capsule. Standard disclaimer here: I am not a medical doctor or physical therapist and I don't play one on the internet. Pa dum tss! Thangiaverymuch, tip your waitress! Doctor prescribed a series of anti-inflamatories that started its work immediately plus the staff. I was good to go! I had four or five days till I closed out the year with my middle schoolers and then I could just rest until it was time to move to another house this summer. Still no plan, my wife and I tried a second time to start our exercise regime, but we over-did it. I was going ahead blindly anyway.

The third site I came across was savingmyknees at blogger and a book by the same title Saving My Knees by Richard Bedard ( http://www.amazon.com  ). Richard chronicles how he saved his knees by healing the soft-tissue damage done to his knees by going too far. Richard was inspired by Doug Kelsey of Sports Center in none other than Austintacious a world away for him, but a mere 45 minutes for me. Richard, thanks be to God, has an analytical mind and a penchant for detail. Richard poured over studies and experimented by trial and error and an experiment of one, wrote a book about it, and still blogs about it to this day! His skill at writing and explaining and supporting those of us wandering around mostly clueless and speaking to doctors that were mostly clueless has proved his point: one can, with careful tracking, careful experimentation regrow soft tissue not with a pill (i.e. glucosamine with chondroitin) although for some it may work (placebo effect), but with successive small movements with non-impact activities like walking, cycling, etc. to push the envelope of motion to allow a joint to recover, grow, and become stronger than before for all intents and purposes. He has the medical studies to support his assertions. He is a man ahead of his time. Now, if medical personnel would just read up and find out the good word!