French Linen

Friday, August 3, 2012

I’ll have what she’s having (a left knee MRI)

You would think Barb and I are twins feeling each other’s body pains.  I’ll let her tell her left knee woe story but here’s mine.  Two weeks ago after giving my body 5 days of rest other than some recovery swimming after the Montauk triathlon, I set out for a run with Mike.  Since we were on flat surface, the weather was comfortable and I knew I needed to start picking up distance for my first Olympic distance triathlon in September, I encouraged him to join me for a longer run.  After having done the 10K a month ago, I figured I could handle a 6 – 6.5 mile run.  Mid-way through my knees starting not feeling great.  Three quarters of the way through, I was walking.
Upon returning home, going up and down stairs was painful so I knew I needed to take it easy.  I swam the next day, and the day after I thought I was starting to feel better and reasoned I could still bicycle.  While the ride started out fine, 3 miles into the ride I felt a pain in my left knee as I started on a very small incline.  I turned around for home and told Mike to go on.  Once I got home, I could see the inner side of my knee was swollen so I iced it.
As I hobbled around work the next day, my triathlete friend, Diane, advised me to see a sports medicine doctor sooner rather than later since she herself had waited too long to treat an injury and was finding relief in physical therapy.  I started researching doctors in my insurance network and by Friday, since I was still experiencing pain and vacation was a week away, I made the appointment for Monday.  The doctor sent me for an x-ray and MRI.
“Oh, that’s not good,” said Barb’s husband and physical therapist upon seeing the results of my MRI.  A story of a patient with a similar problem and surgery involving drilling holes into your knee bone ensued.  But “DON’T PANIC”, said Barb’s email....Hmmm…..
So back to the doctor on Thursday.  He explained in plain English what I had been trying to understand through my google searches – a piece of cartilage had broken off in my knee and cartilage is what helps keep your bones from having friction when your joints move.  He had me put my finger into his knee joint model as he bent the knee as a demonstration of the pressure that is typically put on the cartilage as it flexes.  He said while there are surgical options to fill in cartilage, he wouldn’t recommend it at this time - mine is fortunately very small and it's possible I've had it for a long time.  The real diagnosis was more simply, "runners knee" -- the doctor said I had been running too much.  He has recommended I avoid exercise that puts pressure on the knee joint while we give it 4-6 weeks to see if it will heal. 
So that means no running or serious cycling for at least the next month.  I may be able to handle some light, flat riding but certainly not the kind of training I would need to train over the next month for my first Olympic race.  Yes, sadly, I won’t be doing my first Olympic race on Martha’s Vineyard as I had hoped.  I can swim to heart’s my content so in that regard I’m reminded of the benefits of living the multi-sport life style.
As Barb told me, if you are going to be an athlete, you have to expect injuries.  We all try our best to avoid them and to find that happy balance of pushing ourselves to reach our next goal and yet not overdo it.  Inevitably, most of us aren’t immune to injury.

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