It’s that time of December again, when we take stock of the year that was and start to dream of the possibilities of the year ahead.
I’d like to take a moment to thank the readers of this blog (and the book). My plans, at least for now, are to keep blogging at least semi-frequently until the book sales taper off. I think it’s nice for people who read Saving My Knees to find me online and active.
The book arose from frustration: doctors, I think, are unduly pessimistic about the ability of bad knees to heal, when given time and the proper treatment. I showed it was possible with my own knees (“proof of concept” to validate a hypothesis). My knees are normal today.
The book also arose from anger: after extensive research, I became upset at what physical therapists thought was the “proper treatment” for my knees, and disappointed in my doctors – who I felt should have known better – that they condoned this protocol.
Anyway, I’m not trying to hog the spotlight today. I really wanted to make this an appreciation of you readers, especially those people who share comments and insight on this site. I didn't write the best-selling knee book, but I think I’ve got the smartest readers. ;)
I’ll take that.
Happy New Year to all that keep this space alive!
ReplyDeleteI leave behind the worst year in my life. Last new year's eve found me in my sixth month of being severely crippled (following an injury more than 3 years ago!) and in my second month being on crutches as well as with the onset of scary CRPS-like symptoms. With every move there were sounds as if several masts just got torn by a storm inside the right knee.
At the turn of this year I have the feeling that all my patience and small good things I did come to fruition. My legs are getting stronger every day (there were times when small monthly improvement wоuld make me extremely happy). The knees still do not like to walk that much because the muscles need more proper conditioning but they now love the bike and that is a real game changer. Just rolled 12 km this morning. This is despite the quite deformed plica in the left knee that needs surgery. But there is the bilateral effect reversed - when the bad knee becomes better the other one improves as well despite that it continues to be structurally compromised. Every morning when I mount on the bike it feels like a dream. I give a lot of credit to the people on this site for all this. You did not lie, Richard, there is hope and spreading this message is more important than book sales.
I wish the coming year brings better knees to everybody.
Hi Sveto,
DeleteWhat is responsible for you going from being crippled, on crutches and having pre-CRPS to being able to bike? Did you do surgery or something else? I'm pretty crippled right now with PFS bilateral and desperate.
Reader278
Sorry to hear about your struggle, Reader.
DeleteThe honest answer is - I don't know. And I do not want to speculate openly about that. Yes, I had surgery but only after I was more or less convinced that the body have dealt with the underlying issue that caused the structural damage in the first place.
If you browse this blog carefully, you can find very good posts and comments about some of the most important themes - envelope of function, inflammation, investigating the root causes, adjusting and change. I can add that I found it very important to create and perform various rituals and routines to shield me from the total desperation you mention.
I wish you all the best,
S.
Hello Sveto, I have read Richard's book, the EoF theory and am a patient of Dr. Dye's. I was wondering, was your surgery a synovectomy/plica removal? How long was your recovery time from surgery?
ReplyDeleteReader278
To give background, 1.5-2 year history of anterior knee pain, bilateral but much worse on the left. Actually was responding well to physio until I went on Accutane 6 months ago (acne drug, super hard core and pro-inflammatory), and my condition ++ worsened. My pain ranges from 0-4 daily on a program of very minimal step count, as per Dr. Dye (walking 1500 steps per day). Can't do physio as it seems to just inflame me, even gentle physio. Rheumatological conditions ruled out. Have custom orthotics. Can't tolerate a knee brace or taping. Tried synvisc, just inflamed me. Now doing PRP shots. I only started the program of very minimal rest a little over a month ago. Prior to that I was walking 3000-5000 steps a day for 6 months with no results. I am floundering and feel so lazy and weak not being able to exercise. I also gave myself a triceps tendonitis and adductor tendonitis (long story) so even upper body or core workouts aggravate something. Prior to this- I had never had an injury in my life! Any words of advice appreciated.
ReplyDeleteReader278
Hi Reader 278, i updated here: https://savingmyknees.blogspot.com/2017/08/low-dose-naltrexone-for-damping.html
ReplyDelete- so sorry to hear about your struggle. yes, it is pure devastation. 2017 was teh worst year for me too, like Sveto. No one knows how your body is going to heal. I think what appears to be established, however, is that this is a slow careful process. as far as mental health--"try not to think about it" works best, but, it's not realistically doable. for me, i distracted myself by getting an Apple TV and resting on couch, a lot of icing, pain medication when i absoutely needed to, online gaming, and learning about anything i can on the internet. you should take a break from reading about knees once in a while, too. for me, i started reading about investing and started dabbling into it. it's become a great mental distraction. lol!
Also, Reader278,this is not the PC approach, but i also told myself "at least chronic knee pain is not a terminal illness." then i also started reading about cancer blogs. which would make me really depressed, of coourse. BUT, would help knock me out of self-pity trances. get different perspective. i didn't want to continue taking for granted the things that ARE going for me. yes, it's hard when you are in pain allt eh time and disabled. but there are still positives. so whatever positives you can find, latch onto them for dear life!!!! good luck in your journey.
ReplyDeleteHi pal,
ReplyDeleteI am not sure I can be of any help because these things could be very individual stuff. At the same time I benefited a lot from other people's ideas&experience so I feel obliged to give you some brainstorming and details.
What happens if you completely offload the joints and just move the legs gently in the air or against a wall for some time?! There were periods that even 1500 steps were too much for me. If you are lucky it could be that the knees just want to be left in total peace for some time and only then carefully increase the loading.
This idea of leaving the knees in complete peace may also extend to include thinking carefully about the strategy of having different shots in the joints. At my worse, I didn't let anybody or anything touch my knees. Only self-massage but even that I regretted at times.
It is a good idea to move as much as possible in alternative ways. There are things you can do that are not hard on the joints and do not require building up strength. You can search the internet and use your imagination. For example, I started doing a lot of quigong and lame yoga when my condition allowed for it. I believe these were among the things that also had calming effect on my nervous system. My thinking now is that this is crucial. In general, I disbelieved that only the joints are inflamed, especially when I was able to take a step back and impartially observed how my daily thought patterns changed into crippled, inflamed thinking. To threat the joints as if they are cut from mind&emotions is preposterous. They are in dynamic elusive and mysterious symbiosis. At least this was my thinking so I devised routines trying to influence this aspect. I do not consider that just having positive thoughts is sufficient though. So I tried to tune my deepest layers of my psyche into helping the body and there is no clear cut recipe for that.
I also have had a firm conviction that in my state one of the best ways to regulate the weight and the metabolism is through meticulous diet. My body kindly responded.
Otherwise, I had severely adhesive plica whiteout clean ROM. I declined the surgeon's strong suggestion to have operation 8-9 months ago and made tremendous improvement instead. My thinking was that it is one thing to have surgery at 23% homeostasis, another at 41 % and totally different at 84%. So patience was the name of the game though my impulse was to get the kitchen knife and deal with the adhesive tissue right away. My initial plan was to test Dye's theory and have surgery 18 months since the last "active" inflammation, which plagued me for 6 months (do not ask what that means because it will be hard to explain; but I graded my symptoms in a way that I have a distinction between active/passive inflammation). Dye wrote that oftentimes the joint needs 6-18 months to enter in balance since major surgery/injury. I waited only 11 months after the active inflammation subsided because in the end all structures besides the damaged gradually stopped bothering me.
I can go on with my narrative forever and still won’t be able to convey all the things that I did and that I do. One final note, however - I had inflammation triggers in my house. So when I detected that, locked the property, moved places and never went there since. This was just one of the changes I had to make. This change was very important but also perhaps one of the more easy ones. Others were more difficult. Bottom line is - investigate thoroughly what is influencing your condition.
Hope this gives you some food for thought.
Warmly,
S.