My meniscus, before and after. Day 20 – 71.9kg
Ok, I said in my last post on Day 18 that I was going to pare the blog down, get away from daily updates. And as I didn't post yesterday then I kept my word for a day. The reason I'm back is that today's visit to the Doc was quite informative, if not quite as joyous occasion as I'd hoped it might be. I need to write down everything that the Doc told me so that I remember it, so I might as well blog it.
I walked into his surgery doing my best not to limp, but he spotted it straight away. His first question was how long had been walking without the single crutch, and when I replied honestly "since one day after I last saw you", he let out a knowing sigh. When I then informed him that I was basically on my feet all day yesterday volunteering at a bike race, the smile on his face was replaced with a frown, something I'd never seen on him before. "Uh oh, I'm in trouble!"
I thought my knee looked great, with hardly any sign of swelling but he preceded to show me otherwise. He said I could continue to cycle gently (phew) but he added that I really should not be walking or standing around too much until the swelling was gone.
I was also expecting to go to the physio today but he said a firm NO for the simple reason that I would no doubt have done too much. And he's right, I would. So I'm taking Arcoxia again for a few days and I'll be back here on the couch as much as possible. It's nice here, though, so not too big of hassle. I have already booked my physio appointment for Thursday (I pressed the Doc for a day), though, so looking forward to that.
The Doc stressed that he isn't worried, he says I'm making great progress, I just have to be more sensible.
I also learned more about my knee today as I came armed with a bunch of written questions this time rather than relying on my foggy brain which promptly forgot most of them on the last visit 12 days ago.
– I discovered that while he did indeed take about 50 percent of my meniscus out, it was mostly just at the back of my knee and that there is still a decent layer of the vital cartilaginous tissue protecting against bone-on-bone action. The crude drawing with this post is roughly what he doodled for me.
– Equally appealing was the news that while he was poking around in my knee, he discovered that it didn't show nearly as much evidence of osteoarthritis as he'd expected it to. I had a pretty bad car-bike accident five years ago (February 13th, 2009, a black Friday!!) which left among other things my tibial plateau shattered. While it has healed well, I've been told on a number of occasions to expect trouble down the line. There is some bad stuff happening but for the medium tern outlook there's nothing to worry about.
– The recent and completely new clicking on the front of my knee is caused by the scar tissue from the arthroscopy and once the physio gets her hands on it, she'll sort it out, Doc claims.
And then there were the cycling questions. No, my eternal churning of big gears probably wasn't the cause of the tear and he sees no reason why I can't start clipping in again with my left leg as the twisting action required to unclip shouldn't cause any damage. But I'll wait a few days for that just in case.
The Doc also gave me the green light to put the hammer down again … in my dreams. It's still gently, gently for now, but that's OK.
With the stitches out I was also given the green light to swim again, a mixed blessing as I hate swimming but I know it's good for me and will help build up the withering muscle.
Let's hope I don't drown.
Ok, I said in my last post on Day 18 that I was going to pare the blog down, get away from daily updates. And as I didn't post yesterday then I kept my word for a day. The reason I'm back is that today's visit to the Doc was quite informative, if not quite as joyous occasion as I'd hoped it might be. I need to write down everything that the Doc told me so that I remember it, so I might as well blog it.
I walked into his surgery doing my best not to limp, but he spotted it straight away. His first question was how long had been walking without the single crutch, and when I replied honestly "since one day after I last saw you", he let out a knowing sigh. When I then informed him that I was basically on my feet all day yesterday volunteering at a bike race, the smile on his face was replaced with a frown, something I'd never seen on him before. "Uh oh, I'm in trouble!"
I thought my knee looked great, with hardly any sign of swelling but he preceded to show me otherwise. He said I could continue to cycle gently (phew) but he added that I really should not be walking or standing around too much until the swelling was gone.
I was also expecting to go to the physio today but he said a firm NO for the simple reason that I would no doubt have done too much. And he's right, I would. So I'm taking Arcoxia again for a few days and I'll be back here on the couch as much as possible. It's nice here, though, so not too big of hassle. I have already booked my physio appointment for Thursday (I pressed the Doc for a day), though, so looking forward to that.
The Doc stressed that he isn't worried, he says I'm making great progress, I just have to be more sensible.
I also learned more about my knee today as I came armed with a bunch of written questions this time rather than relying on my foggy brain which promptly forgot most of them on the last visit 12 days ago.
– I discovered that while he did indeed take about 50 percent of my meniscus out, it was mostly just at the back of my knee and that there is still a decent layer of the vital cartilaginous tissue protecting against bone-on-bone action. The crude drawing with this post is roughly what he doodled for me.
– Equally appealing was the news that while he was poking around in my knee, he discovered that it didn't show nearly as much evidence of osteoarthritis as he'd expected it to. I had a pretty bad car-bike accident five years ago (February 13th, 2009, a black Friday!!) which left among other things my tibial plateau shattered. While it has healed well, I've been told on a number of occasions to expect trouble down the line. There is some bad stuff happening but for the medium tern outlook there's nothing to worry about.
– The recent and completely new clicking on the front of my knee is caused by the scar tissue from the arthroscopy and once the physio gets her hands on it, she'll sort it out, Doc claims.
And then there were the cycling questions. No, my eternal churning of big gears probably wasn't the cause of the tear and he sees no reason why I can't start clipping in again with my left leg as the twisting action required to unclip shouldn't cause any damage. But I'll wait a few days for that just in case.
The Doc also gave me the green light to put the hammer down again … in my dreams. It's still gently, gently for now, but that's OK.
With the stitches out I was also given the green light to swim again, a mixed blessing as I hate swimming but I know it's good for me and will help build up the withering muscle.
Let's hope I don't drown.
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