No knee is not a good thing

Yesterday, I talked with my neighbor Chuck who is awaiting knee replacement surgery at the Mayo Clinic. This will be the six or seventh attempt to get it right. He’s actually lost track. Both knees are shot, and he’s in a lot of pain much of time.

The man literally has no left knee, no nothing, holding his tibia and femur together currently as far as I understand, and he's pretty much in constant pain, it seems. Before they can operate again, the doctors are waiting for an infection to clear up, which has lingered for about a month already.

The damage to Chuck’s knees came from a lifetime of factory work on a hard surface floor.  I suspect  his case is not entirely  unlike the sort of overuse injury that life-long long distance running can produce.

About two years ago, an orthopedic surgeon suggested I may have damaged my knee enough that I’d soon be looking at knee replacement surgery.  In training for a second marathon in 2010-2011, I pulled up with a torn meniscus and a bony edema. The doctor implied it might be time to quit running, and certainly to lay off the marathons.

Since then, I’ve run a couple half marathons and a number of shorter races.  I’ve been able to keep running by taking up a mostly self-designed rehab combining shorter distances, slower speeds, more rest, specific leg and core strengthening exercises, and a daily dose of glucosamine sulfate.

Mostly, the program has worked. But, a week ago, the darn knee started feeling pretty sore again. A physical therapist once described  that such an injury is rather like having a hang nail in the joint.  It just never quite goes away.

When the pain crops up, as it does from time to time, the words of that surgeon resurface and I wonder if I’m doing the right thing by keeping after it. And, when I see my neighbor Chuck wheeling around in a motorized cart, not even able to get around on crutches, well, there get to be moments when I wonder what it would be like not to have a real knee, or no knee at all.

Chuck’s going in for surgery next Sunday, we hope. Good luck, Chuck!