Of course the normal open comment forum rules apply: Feel free to ignore my suggested topic, and talk among yourselves about whatever you'd like.
But for anyone who wants to go along:
What was the biggest mistake you made when it comes to managing or dealing with your knee pain?
This is probably a moderately hard question. I pondered it myself. I couldn't think of a single event.
As in, I can't really say, "The biggest mistake I made was seeing Doctor X and taking his advice to do Y."
Rather, I think the biggest mistake I made was not taking my knee pain seriously for months, and assuming it would go away, because I was healthy and had always recovered well from minor injuries.
By the time I did take it seriously, I was in a really deep hole. And then, at that point, unfortunately I kept digging that hole. I knew I had a problem with knee pain. I knew it wasn't going to magically resolve itself. But still, I tried to keep semi-active. I stressed my knees more than they could handle.
Then, finally, I hit that low point where I conceded how bad things were, and with that knowledge, I could chart a path to recovery.
What about you? What was the biggest mistake you made?
Mine was to go to a health club a week and a half after surgery, get on the exercise bike, and take a shower, letting a band aid from my arthroscopic surgery fall off. I followed doctor's orders by letting the band aid fall off. However, the fact that it came off in the shower of the health club may have exposed my knee to some vicious bacteria that gave me a massive infection that put me in the hospital for almost 3 weeks and caused a myriad of other problems that have not been fully resolved in 16 years. Or, I may have gotten the infection from surgery, despite it taking 2 weeks to appear. Either way, I wish I could have done multiple things differently related to this.
ReplyDeleteRichard, I agree with you. I can't really pin-point one specific mistake, I want to for the sake of blame, but in reality my knee problems were brewing for a very long time. By the time I took it seriously I was in a challenging place. But once you do realize the problem, and realize that ignoring or going about conventional solutions won't work, or only work to a limited degree, you can plot a path to success.
ReplyDeleteMy side question to you is, how/when did you decide cycling was reasonable to try again? It has been 2+ years since I have been on the bike. My knee pain/symptoms have improved. I can now go on 2 mile walks, use a rowing machine for 15 min, even do gardening & housework. Of course if I over do it, my knees will remind me and I can have a setback. So day to day life is so much better than two years ago, so I don't want to risk losing that. But man every-time I see someone on the tarmac I get that itch to ride. I have this "hunch" that waiting a full 3 years will be of great benefit. Also I keep thinking that if at that 3 year mark I can do a full body weight squat without delayed onset pain then I could be good to go (right now I can do 60-65% bodyweight on a variable incline plane). What was your indication that gave you confidence to try cycling again?
Not hearing my knees and keep playing soccer like it would go away. Now I can see that was a slow, steady process of ruining my knees. Now it's 2x slower to get them back.
ReplyDeleteI think the big problem still is that I tend to be too optimistic and often I overdo something and have to go back two steps.
Another thing: because of the quarantine I could rest my knees often and that was good at the beginning, but I started to barely walk because I didn't wanted to go outside. In no time the pain in my knees was present again and every day I felt it more and more. So I decided to start walking again on the streets (using mask, alcohol and everything) when there is not much people around and what happens after 3 weeks of that? I almost don't remember I have knees because they became quiet again. No pain at all!
Maybe I can start some deadlifting! (just kidding, but it's hard to stop this optimistic guy inside of my head)
My biggest mistakes were
ReplyDelete1) "over-doing-it" and causing a really bad flare up that would cause a giant setback and take me a long long long time to recover from.
2) once my knees were feeling really well... then.... starting to think that they were permanently healed... and.... taking that for granted a bit which led to me not keeping up with my exercises.... which led to a relapse which would take me a long long long long time to recover from.
The last time my knees were doing really well, I thought I was "HEALED" and I gave my cane to the Good Will. Then I had a giant set-back and I had to buy a new cane.
Now my knees are doing really well again, but, I'm not only keeping my cane, but I keep the cane visible in the corner and not hidden away in the closet! It's a visual reminder for me to keep being vigilant! Keep exercising.... but be careful and do not over-do-it. In this way I hope to keep that cane in the corner and to not need it out on the sidewalks again.