Yesterday I had my MRI review meeting with my orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Andrew Parker. I brought in the MRI, and we went over the radiologist's interpretations before Dr. Parker showed me the actual MRI images of my right knee.
There are multiple issues at play: (1) bits of cartilage have broken off and are floating around (but they're quite small at the moment); (2) I'm losing cartilage, esp. behind the kneecap; (3) I'm developing osteoarthritis; (4) I have a lot of fluid build-up all around the patella; and (5) I have scar tissue buildup from my previous 1,984 other knee surgeries (slight exaggeration on the number), in addition to some calcification of tissue around the kneecap.
Dr. Parker suggests that this means: my knee is an utter and absolute mess. But I have options. They are: (1) knee replacement (not quite yet--like "killing an ant with a bazooka"); (2) arthroscopic surgery to clean out debris, calcification, and some of the scar tissue (but this won't guarantee lessening of swelling and/or pain); (3) injections of OrthoVisc, a "joint fluid treatment" that treats osteoartritis for months at a time; and (4) taking Glucosamine Condroitin and Aleve (for inflammation).
As you can see with the above list, I've organized it in order or horrendousness (worst first). But the good news is that I start with (4), move to (3) in a few months, and keep repeating (3) for the next few years. I have been told I can continue to run. But, alas, I cannot run "a lot": maybe 20 miles a week, or 25. But I'll never marathon or ultramarathon, the real hope I had when I started blogging on this topic.
It's funny: in the last ten years I've had no problems with my knees whatsoever. I knew I had these surgeries and I have the scars to prove it. But I had bounced back, and I felt a bit bionic. I laughed when my mother cringed as she asked me, "how many miles did you run today?" As if it was all a dream, the previous injuries. But at my age (38) it was just a matter of time. Those injuries would eventually come back. I think this is akin to hearing my grandfather-in-law, at 93, just this week was diagnosed with lung cancer. He quit smoking in the 1950s, but it eventually caught up with him.
In my research I've found plenty of articles on overuse injuries for ultraendurance athletes. Consider the article by O'Toole et al.: Overuse Injuries in Ultraendurance Triathietes from the American Journal of Sports Medicine. The injuries to the athletes were common and random (not all athletes had the same injuries). The bad news is that I am not an Ironman competitor: my last actual elite sports competition was in 1994.
The good news is that these athletes, who do dangerous and outrageous sports feats, keep doing it. So I might have to get injections with a horse needle into my knee every couple of months to keep running. And I will.
1 comment:
It boggles my mind that you still want to run, given what you are having to go through in order to do so. But then I remember how I loved to ride when I was younger, and after a terrible injury where I broke my upper arm clean in half, noone could tell me no. I was riding one-handed in a cast, lol.
Don't give up on what you love, but maybe start tempering it a little? Swim a couple days a week, jog the rest?
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