Since meeting my new orthopedic specialist I've been trying to follow his advice. I've cut out most fried food (potato chips still get me occasionally), started taking fish oil, began doing closed chain exercises such as squats, stopped running and switched to a bike. The only piece of advice I am having a hard time with at the moment is the brace. I can't find one that works.
When this all started I was told that I may have to wear a knee brace during activities for the rest of my life. Planning on living to 130 (jk) I think that's a long damn time so I want to find a brace that fits under my clothes and supports my knee. Once my kneecap had healed I was happy to start wearing a Breg Shortrunner neoprene knee brace. At first it was great, I could run and walk again without feeling like someone was slowly letting the air out of my tire (aka knee). Then summer came and the horrible idea that is neoprene in warm weather slapped me in the face. As soon as the temperature rose I started developing hives, even after washing the brace by hand daily. On top of that my calf would become swollen within a mile, causing my foot to start to fall asleep. It was beyond frustrating trying to run like that. I stopped wearing it but used the straps it had to wrap around my thigh and calf as a sort of half-measure (with a lot of hope). That worked okay, but my knee pain increased as my running became more consistent and I still had my "dead foot" issue, even without the full brace.
I explained all this to my new doctor and he gave such a disgusted face when I said the brace was neoprene I had to laugh. Unfortunately his solution, a more fabric-like brace comes with super-revolutionary side hinges that are a type of plastic (designed to be molded) and not metal. My insurance company apparently does not like hinges made of anything but metal so unless I can pony up the money for this new brace, I'm out of luck.
So began my search for a cheaper alternative. After too many hours on amazon I found a very economical version-and I could buy one at Walmart of all places. It did not come with hinges, but really, I don't think I need them per say. I don't do a lot of side pivoting (at least not now that I'm off trail running for the time being), so I bought this little elastic knee support for the grand total of $13 and prayed it would help take the hitch out of my step at the end of each day.
When I tried it on it felt fine, a bit snug but otherwise it fit as it was supposed to. It didn't take long though for the top of the support to start rolling down (even though I had bought the correct size and it was a very short brace, just covering the knee) and after only a few hours of wearing it my calf started to feel too snug. I took it off in the office washroom to find the fabric imprinted on my now swollen knee. Ugh. Back to the drawing board. I am starting to wonder if a brace even exists that won't cut off the circulation to my calf? The search continues.
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
An Introduction
It only took two specialists to tell me I had knee Osteoarthritis before I could believe them. I mean this was something "old" people got, right? This didn't happen to people under 40 that were healthy, fit and had no history of osteoarthritis. But yet, here I am, under 40, fit (at least I was until the accident) and even though no one in my family has ever had osteoarthritis, here I am with a full blown moderate-to-severe case of it in my left knee.
Back to the beginning, since this is my first post. I fell. Hard. I was run commuting my way home one winter evening and I managed to hook a toe and come crashing down on my left knee. I knew at that moment I had probably broken something. I actually tried to prepare myself to see bone sticking out from my lycra running pants. Thankfully there wasn't, there was only pain. Once I got myself to a hospital 5 days later (with my knee still the size of a small baseball) the ER doctor looked at me with one of those pained expressions when I said, I just sprained it, right? A month and an expensive MRI later it was confirmed I had not sprained it. I had cracked my kneecap. That hurts just as much as you expect it would. The MRI also showed I had destroyed over 50% of the articular cartilage in that knee. I still expected to ramp up my training to tackle a 65km trail run later in the spring.
After being the "good patient" and attending early morning physio sessions I was still in more pain that I thought I should be. A broken bone takes 6-8 weeks to heal, so a cracked one should take less right? That wasn't my biggest problem. When I went to my orthopedic specialist he told me that while my kneecap had probably healed it was actually that destroyed and frayed cartilage that was the source of my pain. He said I should push through the pain and try to regain my lifestyle of running trails.
So I tried, really I did. I would go up to 10km and then the aching pain was too much or a sharp stabbing pain would begin, causing me to run in an erratic and frustrating run/walk pattern that I couldn't shake no matter how hard I tried to push through the pain. I went back to my ortho doctor.
By then I had googled the heck out of my pain and was convinced something else was going on. An undetected meniscus tear? A sprained MCL? Nothing I read about chondromalcia patella fit my pain description even though I hear my physiotherapist use it a few times when chatting about my knee. So I asked him point blank, do I have arthritis in my knee? He said, yes, a moderate case. Still I didn't believe him because all he said was to take more ibuprofen. I was, and still, have never been put on the standard arthritis drugs for pain so I figured he was grasping at straws since he didn't even examine my knee.
Fast forward four more months, one HA treatment, chiropractor sessions, 2 more ER trips and finally me asking my GP for a second opinion after my first ortho doctor put me on gabapentin. I still called this pain my "bad" knee, and that I had no idea what was going on with it when people would ask. I managed to run/walk a half marathon, albeit took almost as long as my first marathon to complete. I was beyond frustrated. I did get some pain relief after 10 months (I wasn't even given pain medication when I cracked my knee) by taking the gabapentin, but I hated taking gabapentin. It made me dizzy, emotional, it gave me the ability to literally fall asleep at the drop of a hat, and I gained weight, even after I cut calories down to nothing and exercised on the stationary bike, I gained weight fast. I needed another alternative. So, on to doctor #2.
My new ortho specialist is semi-retired but with that comes a wealth of experience. After I described my symptoms and history he took my hand and laid it over my bad knee. Extend it, he said, I did. Now bend it back down. I complied, and with utter horror felt rice krispies crackle inside my knee. Not just a little crackle, it was like someone poured a whole box of that cereal into my knee. You have osteoarthritis, he said. A heavy feeling sunk into my chest as if I had just been waiting for someone to confirm it. We discussed my options. Surgery was still a long way off for me because of my age and my doctor wanted to try a more conservative treatment before tackling this will opioids. So, I'm taking a ridiculous amount of fish oil every day (3 tablets of 1200mg) and weaning myself off gabapentin. I'm taking a break from running while I wait for a new knee brace and trying to build up the strength in my thigh with closed chain exercises. Its not a perfect solution but it is the safest for me long-term.
The other day I was browsing knee braces at a collaborative care center and one of the assistants asked what I needed it for. Just getting the words, "I have osteoarthritis" to come out of my mouth felt weird, like they belonged to someone else, but yet it also made me feel like I had accepted my predicament on some level.
I want this blog to be a source for those of us, in the under 50 crowd that aren't "supposed" to have arthritis but do, to find some camaraderie. I plan to share my experience as I start this journey and all the ups and downs it brings. I hope you will find it useful in some way, whether it be a new treatment, medication, supplement or exercise you can do to find some relief. No matter what though, knee OA sucks.
Back to the beginning, since this is my first post. I fell. Hard. I was run commuting my way home one winter evening and I managed to hook a toe and come crashing down on my left knee. I knew at that moment I had probably broken something. I actually tried to prepare myself to see bone sticking out from my lycra running pants. Thankfully there wasn't, there was only pain. Once I got myself to a hospital 5 days later (with my knee still the size of a small baseball) the ER doctor looked at me with one of those pained expressions when I said, I just sprained it, right? A month and an expensive MRI later it was confirmed I had not sprained it. I had cracked my kneecap. That hurts just as much as you expect it would. The MRI also showed I had destroyed over 50% of the articular cartilage in that knee. I still expected to ramp up my training to tackle a 65km trail run later in the spring.
After being the "good patient" and attending early morning physio sessions I was still in more pain that I thought I should be. A broken bone takes 6-8 weeks to heal, so a cracked one should take less right? That wasn't my biggest problem. When I went to my orthopedic specialist he told me that while my kneecap had probably healed it was actually that destroyed and frayed cartilage that was the source of my pain. He said I should push through the pain and try to regain my lifestyle of running trails.
So I tried, really I did. I would go up to 10km and then the aching pain was too much or a sharp stabbing pain would begin, causing me to run in an erratic and frustrating run/walk pattern that I couldn't shake no matter how hard I tried to push through the pain. I went back to my ortho doctor.
By then I had googled the heck out of my pain and was convinced something else was going on. An undetected meniscus tear? A sprained MCL? Nothing I read about chondromalcia patella fit my pain description even though I hear my physiotherapist use it a few times when chatting about my knee. So I asked him point blank, do I have arthritis in my knee? He said, yes, a moderate case. Still I didn't believe him because all he said was to take more ibuprofen. I was, and still, have never been put on the standard arthritis drugs for pain so I figured he was grasping at straws since he didn't even examine my knee.
Fast forward four more months, one HA treatment, chiropractor sessions, 2 more ER trips and finally me asking my GP for a second opinion after my first ortho doctor put me on gabapentin. I still called this pain my "bad" knee, and that I had no idea what was going on with it when people would ask. I managed to run/walk a half marathon, albeit took almost as long as my first marathon to complete. I was beyond frustrated. I did get some pain relief after 10 months (I wasn't even given pain medication when I cracked my knee) by taking the gabapentin, but I hated taking gabapentin. It made me dizzy, emotional, it gave me the ability to literally fall asleep at the drop of a hat, and I gained weight, even after I cut calories down to nothing and exercised on the stationary bike, I gained weight fast. I needed another alternative. So, on to doctor #2.
My new ortho specialist is semi-retired but with that comes a wealth of experience. After I described my symptoms and history he took my hand and laid it over my bad knee. Extend it, he said, I did. Now bend it back down. I complied, and with utter horror felt rice krispies crackle inside my knee. Not just a little crackle, it was like someone poured a whole box of that cereal into my knee. You have osteoarthritis, he said. A heavy feeling sunk into my chest as if I had just been waiting for someone to confirm it. We discussed my options. Surgery was still a long way off for me because of my age and my doctor wanted to try a more conservative treatment before tackling this will opioids. So, I'm taking a ridiculous amount of fish oil every day (3 tablets of 1200mg) and weaning myself off gabapentin. I'm taking a break from running while I wait for a new knee brace and trying to build up the strength in my thigh with closed chain exercises. Its not a perfect solution but it is the safest for me long-term.
The other day I was browsing knee braces at a collaborative care center and one of the assistants asked what I needed it for. Just getting the words, "I have osteoarthritis" to come out of my mouth felt weird, like they belonged to someone else, but yet it also made me feel like I had accepted my predicament on some level.
I want this blog to be a source for those of us, in the under 50 crowd that aren't "supposed" to have arthritis but do, to find some camaraderie. I plan to share my experience as I start this journey and all the ups and downs it brings. I hope you will find it useful in some way, whether it be a new treatment, medication, supplement or exercise you can do to find some relief. No matter what though, knee OA sucks.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)