Alright, check in time. I can report that I've been able to increase my physical activity level in the past week to working out in some way for at least 30 minutes a day, sometimes more than an hour. I've been doing a lot of home-based workouts, using P90X plus and Livestrong's Stronger programs. As long as I use exercise bands instead of weights and avoid anything that hyper-loads my knee (say, crab walks) then I haven't had any issues. Okay, okay, that first day did hurt a bit but I'm chalking that up to not using the supporting muscles for so long and they may have been cranky as a result. I iced my bad knee for 10 minutes on each side (advice from my chiropractor) and that seemed to do the trick. I did have some evening soreness, but it's hard to say if that was the impending snow storm or exercise related. After day one though exercise hasn't been painful. In fact, yesterday, for the first time in probably a year I did a workout before work. I found my pain levels were much better throughout the day, which surprised me since I always thought I would be living in a world of pain if I stressed my knee by working out first thing in the morning. This is certainly something I'll have to try again on Friday when I have a late-start day.
I will admit I thought the Livestrong program would be a bit too easy for me. While I've gotten out of shape I still have a decent amount of endurance so I thought 30 minutes wouldn't even cause me to sweat. Well, I was wrong. The pool of sweat as I finished the first workout confirmed this was a legit program that could possibly give me some results. The food app is very similar to all the others I've tried, so it does what it should. The host of the workout series is a young guy named Nicky but he's got positive energy and has a very simple moto: I can and I will. I can and I will keep trying to exercise and eat better each day.
I am also noting my pain scale as I try to lose as much weight as possible. So far I still have pain around a 5 or 6 most days, sometimes that's up to an 8 if my leg turns into what I call my "peg leg" feeling. Honestly that's the best description I can give it. I can only feel the medial part of my fibula and it feels like its jammed into the hunk of flesh that is my quad. I don't even feel my knee or my calf, it's that painful. I try to avoid walking when I get my peg leg since it hurts just too much. I pop a couple of 400 Ibuprofens and cross my fingers they will work, most often it just takes the restless feeling away in my leg. I've described it to my husband who just gets frustrated that the medical community's approach for OA in people my age is to do nothing aside from giving the patient heavy drugs to numb the pain. We both believe in addressing the issue, not masking it. I get his frustration. Here I am, trying to lose weight, eating healthy and I'm still in pain. When I look online I see that if I lived in another country I might be able to try other treatments not available to me here; php injections (proven in some studies to be more effective than HA injections), trying a cartilage mesh that re-grows cartilage in the knee, or even partial knee replacements for example. Reading how improved the patients lives are after these treatments is bitter sweet. I'm thrilled there are options that work out there but depressed I don't have any chance of ever accessing them. I've basically been told that unless something dramatic happens otherwise I won't get any further medical intervention until my bad knee decides to total freeze up and become useless. So I feel like I'm waiting for that to happen, which might be 20 more years or it could be 10, either way I face years of pain ahead only to face major surgery. That's partly why I stopped bothering with going to the physiotherapist, the orthopedic specialist and quit taking the gabapentin. It's just depressing. Every time I go just reminds me of how badly I've disabled myself (I caused my accident (I fell, not paying attention) so I feel responsible and forever guilty-yes even a year later-that I did this to myself and have burdened my family with my whining).
I still look passively at knee braces. I know they do help, but I'm not sure if I should bother with them since the swelling in my knee makes wearing one uncomfortable and usually prevents me from continuing a nice solid run...which is kinda the reason I would wear one in the first place. So I go without so I can exercise. The bend in my bad knee is bad. I know it's less than 90 degrees, so exercise at times can look pretty silly when I'm bending down to my toes on one side but can barely bend my other leg. I worry about the muscles in my bad knee/leg. I know because of this they aren't getting the full range of motion and therefore can only shrink and become smaller. That's bad news to a runner. But I continue on because I still can and I will.
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