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.