Well I made it through the holidays. Thankfully, this year didn't involve a 10 hour drive (total) back and forth to my in-laws. That has consistently given my knee an excuse to stiffen up. Instead I tried to make sure I exercised or ran every day, even if it was just 30 minutes of hatha yoga. I accomplished this most days and found that it does help to move.
Still, it sucks. Knowing that weight loss holds the one and only promise of non-drug pain relief gives my new year's resolutions a new meaning. Now, instead of just trying to lose weight, I'm also trying to reduce my pain.
Even though it feels a bit hopeless I am glad that I'm off the Gabapentin pills. While they gave me blessed relief they also made me feel like I had a constant bitchy/over emotional case of PMS. Coming off them was worse and the withdrawal effects took almost 2 weeks to totally leave my system, often giving me jitters throughout the day. The cost far outweighed the benefit in my case.
So I'm setting my goals. I want to run consistently. No big mileage goal set, just to simply run consistently. During the holidays I did a nice little 2 mile circuit around my neighborhood that was a challenge but achievable. The distance itself isn't the challenge, it is running the distance without pain. So far my knee only twinges at the end of the 2 miles. Today I'm going to go for 2.5 miles...maybe 3 if my knee agrees. The route is super flat, except for a sizeable downhill at the end, so I'm confident I'll be able to do it.
My diet has also been tweaked a little. I'm cutting out processed carbs and continuing with avoiding fried foods when possible. I have noticed a huge difference if I stay away from fried foods for a few weeks than have an order of fries-the next day I feel like I have a peg-leg. The same goes for sugar, but that pretty much goes hand in hand with the processed carbs. My only weakness so far-cookies. Ugh.
I also decided not to bother with seeing my specialist for the time being. I know he wants me to do closed chain exercises, and I have a nice app for that, and lose weight. But I am ignoring his whole "don't run" advice obviously. Aside from that, and because I'm under 40, it appears there's nothing else any doctor will do for me. Sure, I can try every homeopathic intervention out there but when it comes down to it my specialist is correct; lose weight and strengthen my bad leg. That's my prescription for the next 10 years or until the pain gets so bad I can no longer move...and even then I'm betting they will just give me something like gaba to shut me up (no thanks).
It's been almost a year to the date that I did this to myself so I'm done with the whole self-pity thing, trauma caused Knee OA sucks but it is my new reality and like any problem I'm going to try and work through it.
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