Cut Me, Mickey!

As it has been confirmed by Dr. Magee that I have a torn lateral meniscus on my left knee, I will be undergoing surgery. The appointment is set a week from tomorrow, February 8, 2011. It'll be performed at Washington Adventist Hospital. If you want to learn more about meniscus tears, I offer this for your viewing pleasure:



I've never had surgery to a leg before. And I don't like doctors a whole lot. But, I trust that everything will be ok. I'll try to document it as much as I can, but they do put the patient out completely while the procedure is being done.

The way I feel now is that this is just a little pit stop on my march to a sub-12 hour Ironman Lake Placid. Of course, the hard work begins when I have to recover from surgery and then ramp up the training for the event. It really only boils down to this... I have two choices:

1. Quit
2. Get Better

I'm voting for #2.

6 Months Checkpoint

Ironman Lake Placid is 6 months from today. And, two and a half hours of my day was spent at an Orthopedic Surgeon's office. He confirmed the torn lateral miniscus. He took some more x-rays and concluded that there is no arthritis. He suggested surgery but we agreed with a less aggressive treatment of Naprosyn and some exercise. He cleared me for cycling and swimming, but nothing that put shock on the knee... no running, jumping or lifting weights with my legs.

So, in the meantime... I act as if. Cycling, swimming... and EATING RIGHT. But no running. Let's see if this treatment has an impact and wait a month. If it clears up, good. If not, I can do the surgery and still have enough time to recover prior to race day.

At least, that's how I feel right now.

Diagnosis

I talked to my GP today. The report she got from the MRI operator is:

1. moderate tendonitis in the left knee
2. subtle tear of posterior horn of lateral meniscus
3. inflammation in the left knee

So, I've now been referred to an orthopedist. Set the appointment for Monday, January 24 at 1:30 pm. Stay tuned.

What a Pain in the... Knee

This is my eighth season of triathlon. I've had to miss training for extended periods of time on only three occasions. On Fathers Day, 2004, I stepped on something in the water during the swim for the Baltimore Aquathlon. It's the only race I've ever DNFed. I think you can see why.

OUCH! Bottom of my left foot.

That injury caused me to miss 30 days of training in preparation for the Disney Triathlon 2004. That race is a story in and of itself.

Then, in 2008, while preparing for Ironman Florida, I suffered a detached retina in my right eye and a torn retina in my left eye. I again missed a ton of training time and that whole experience is documented here.

At home after surgery.

On July 4, 2010, I was hit by a motorist while cycling on River Road. I was about 3 months out from the Half Full Triathlon and I think it took a good three plus weeks before I could get back out on the bike again. Running took a little longer.

I hit the pavement pretty hard. But, it could have been a lot worse.

So, I've never had a typical, endurance sport, type-of-injury that has caused me to miss significant training time. I've been relatively fortunate with avoiding leg, knee, ankle or foot problems. Until December 21... when I was walking down the steps of my house and sensed discomfort in the patella of my left knee. I even commented on it at the time. On December 23, I had a 10 mile run on the training schedule and didn't get 2 minutes into the run before realizing that the discomfort was really pain. I have not run since. I continued to cycle and do rowing workouts... but the pain seemed to increase day by day. Last weekend, it hurt going up and down steps and also getting up and down out of a chair. So, for the past week, I've done nothing. Except eat.

Honestly, part of that is wallowing in "feeling sorry" for myself. I turned 45 on December 10. Many of you know that I'm going through a divorce. I have my daughter full time and she is 13 years old. It's been very challenging to be thrust into the role of the primary caregiver to a young woman.

But, I think I've bottomed out on this "woe is me" feeling. Time to take action. I went to the doctor on Friday. She sent me for X-rays and they'll likely find nothing and suggest an MRI. Because of the way health insurance works, I had to go through that process. I need to find out what is going on. But, I also have to get into a different spot mentally. There is a ton of time before IMLP and I'm *not* a broken down old man who has no one to take care of him. Tomorrow... I'll get in the pool and get back on my pre-marathon diet.

A big part of my involvement in endurance sports is how it makes me feel. I really enjoy the workouts, the journey... the friendships. Right now, I'm not getting that. And it sucks. I only make it worse by pretending that knee pain will just go away (as mysteriously as it came), or even worse... start feeling negative.

If you came to this blog to read a bunch of feel good rah rah stuff, you're in the wrong place.

Houston, We Have a Problem

OK... I haven't run since approximately December 18. There is something wrong with my left knee. And it hasn't gone away even though I have completely stopped running. So, I am going to the doctor at some point this week. More will be revealed.