Recently I was thinking about the "elevator pitch" for my book (which is basically what I learned about healing bad knees). The elevator pitch, as most people know, is the 30-second speech encapsulating something that can be fairly complex. It's supposed to be an idea condensed to the amount of time one might spend riding an elevator in a high-rise.
What put me in mind of elevator speeches was a conversation I had a few weeks ago with someone about what I did to heal my knees. Generally, I try to avoid the subject. There's so much that could be said; I feel sort of talked out on the matter; many people don't respond well to the book's core message anyway.
But occasionally I find myself engaged again in a dialogue on the topic, and my thoughts skip through a whole bunch of things and I get kind of excited until in the end I figure I've either made a convert to my way of thinking or my interlocutor thinks I'm crazy.
So I started thinking, once again, about the essence of my message. I guess it would go something like this:
You can heal your bad knees. The pessimistic doctors are wrong: knees don't just "wear out." But be careful: many physical therapists urge strengthening muscles around the joint, and that can further damage your knees. Broadly, the best way to heal involves lots of easy movement and very, very slow progress that can be maddening, with disheartening setbacks. More narrowly, you'll have to experiment some to find out what works best for your particular knees.
I think that's the essence of what I have to say. My particular story is what the book is all about. But, once again, no one needs to buy the book. The message is here on the website ... look around for a while and see whether or not what I'm saying makes sense to you. Everything I learned is here. Plus, on the website you benefit from getting to read some cool success stories about how others conquered their knee pain!
'Pessimistic doctors with tunnel vision' would be more accurate in my experience.
ReplyDeleteAnd 'Physical therapists who cannot deal with the patients likely and hard to ignore demand for a fast fix and who also have a focus on structures not biochemistry'.
Hi Ricahrd, I just found your blog after starting my own knee pain journey. I noticed crepitus in my one knee about two years ago, but brushed it off. I had no other symptoms until I pulled my calf during running and after developed a baker's cyst. I rehabbed the cyst, but I was asking the physical therapist about the crepitus, and he said the same thing that unless there is pain, to just ignore it, which I did. I returned to life as normal without pain, but when I started training for a half and working on my squats I noticed the same posterior knee pain, but now on both knees. I took it easy for awhile since it seemed everything I was doing was causing pain. Once I got back to running, I noticed tightness in the front of the knees although still only crepitus on one side. I went back to the PT, who did an ultrasound and found no issues at all with the knees. I asked if he could examine the cartilage with other methods and he said that with just the ultrasound it's showing that the cartilage is thick and healthy, so there is no need for any other exams. I am trying to get a second opinion, but now I am in the trap of what am I really feeling. Do I feel real knee pain or is it only mental/psychological since I am so focused on my knees and the crepitus. I have also started having back pain, which I never really had before. I keep pretty active with cycling almost everyday to work, but I have dropped running. I am afraid everything I am doing is destroying my joints, but also afraid doing nothing is destroying my joints. Did you have issues of navigating this in terms of know what is real pain versus normal sensations your body is interpreting as pain? How do you navigate that? Also, how does one get your book if they live in a country where the Amazon site there does not offer it?
ReplyDeleteHi Richard. Your blog has given me a lot of hope over a few months of on and off knee issues. I have a question.
ReplyDeleteWhat would you do about intermittent and unpredictable pain? Mine started after a mild injury last winter. I got a clean bill of health from a doctor and got on with physio which helped enough.
But recently I've been getting bouts of pain and sweelling which your blog has helped me to recognise are probably delayed onset pain from activities. I like walking and swimming anyway so I decided to follow your methods. The issue I'm having is that a walk of, say 5km can be fine one week and agnosing the next. I'm struggling to develop and keep to any plan because it all just feels so unpredictable.