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Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Surgical 7th Week Anniversary!

Went to see the Doc and his assistant boy friday today. Saw the boy friday first. Explained what I have tried to do so far and what the results have been. He told me that I was at about 90% compared to most of the folks he sees. I told him not to blow smoke up my ass.....I have only one measuring stick! Can I run three days a week. Anything else is failure. I went over how my leg feels like someone else's, and the fact that when I take hour long walks, my left foot tends to start to turn outward. He had me straighten my legs, and my upper quad has a few areas not fully developed bye my crude leg lifts and presses. The pain from the backside of the knee into my calf is from week hamstrings in relation to my quads, probably from 5 months of primarily doing the exercycle and mountain bike. I asked him if he could pick one PT from my list of 12 that take our insurance, who he would trust his knee to. He picked only one guy. The doc came in next and blew more smoke up my ass, and then said I want you to wait to try and run until you get this left leg lateral compartment unloader called an osser unloader one leg brace. It works by moving the landing force from the outside of the leg more toward the centerline of the knee. Now this will eventually wear out more of the patella and the medial meniscus, but he understands I want to try to accomplish two things......run three times a week and delay a knee replacement until I hit age 65 and can get it covered by medicare! So he showed me what it looked like. I told him I happened to have a picture of one with me to ask about it cause all these folks on the running and triathlon forums were using them. He laughed and wrote me a prescription. He also suggested a particular running insole that he has all his runners use...Run Pro insoles. He suggested medium arch support for me. Terry, you might want to try it in the higher arch support instead of your orthotic. It is 50 bucks on amazon and the reviews are all stellar. So I headed from there to the PT place to register. After that I went next door to "Hanger", a prosthetic limb and orthotic place, that also does braces. They measured me for my custom brace, and will do all the insurance filing. Should have it on my leg in about a week and a half. Here is a two minute video showing the brace. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdNIujGAF68&feature=endscreen&NR=1 At the end, an old geezer like me is running in it. My hinge will be on the opposite side of the one they show. So, 2012, the year of the knee continues. Been an interesting ride so far with much more to come. This whole year will probably end up being devoted to my knee. Never saw it coming.....

1 comment:

TerribleTerry said...

All that smoke...up your ass. Poor Deb's going to get 2nd hand smokers cough when that comes back out in your sleep.