Messed up knee: Brace helps, added arthritis meds

[Syscrush]

Thanks - very interesting. I hope to be trying out one of those braces soon - I'm walking ~40-50k/wk but I haven't run since last Oct, and I am absolutely chomping at the bit to get back out there. I f'n hate this s--t! My knee hurts almost all the time. I had a hard enough time controlling my weight when I was running 30-40k/wk and cycling 100-200k/wk - this winter has been a disaster weight-wise and I'm paying the price now. My lunch every day is a fruit cup, and by the luck of the draw today's was like 30% grapes. And I HATE GRAPES!!!

Penance, I guess.

[Syscrush]

Here's a nice development - I've got a really irritating rash from the last taping. I wore the tape all day Thu and Fri, took it off Sat afternoon, and on Sun the rash showed up. Today it's still really bugging me. This whole thing is starting to feel like kind of a joke.

I do think that it helped, but my knee still hurts too much for me to do anything good with it. Gonna keep doing the stretches and exercises, and give a brace a whirl soon.

[fe.RMT]

Here's a nice development - I've got a really irritating rash from the last taping. I wore the tape all day Thu and Fri, took it off Sat afternoon, and on Sun the rash showed up. Today it's still really bugging me. This whole thing is starting to feel like kind of a joke.

I do think that it helped, but my knee still hurts too much for me to do anything good with it. Gonna keep doing the stretches and exercises, and give a brace a whirl soon.

Might want to look into kinesiotape or ever SpiderTech if you want to tape at home (for ease of application)

http://www.youtube.com/user/spidtech#p/u/39/bnUJYdu5xC8

precut makes them easier to apply and much faster

[Syscrush]

Might want to look into kinesiotape or ever SpiderTech if you want to tape at home (for ease of application)

http://www.youtube.com/user/spidtech#p/u/39/bnUJYdu5xC8

precut makes them easier to apply and much faster

Thanks. I want to forget about tape for a bit and try a brace - I can't be putting tape on and taking it off every day, but I do want to get back to running and/or cycling every day.

If the brace doesn't work, I think I'll quit running and switch to some combination of cycling, lifting, yoga, and pain-killers until it's time for a TKR surgery. I really hope it doesn't come to that, though - I do love running and I miss it a lot.

[fe.RMT]

Might want to look into kinesiotape or ever SpiderTech if you want to tape at home (for ease of application)

http://www.youtube.com/user/spidtech#p/u/39/bnUJYdu5xC8

precut makes them easier to apply and much faster

Thanks. I want to forget about tape for a bit and try a brace - I can't be putting tape on and taking it off every day, but I do want to get back to running and/or cycling every day.

If the brace doesn't work, I think I'll quit running and switch to some combination of cycling, lifting, yoga, and pain-killers until it's time for a TKR surgery. I really hope it doesn't come to that, though - I do love running and I miss it a lot.

the kinesio tape has a long life span that athletic tape (it's meant to be worn for several days)... but I totally hear you. I felt the same way about ankle/knee/nerve thing I had going on. Taping was the easiest and most effective (I think because of the proprioceptive changes being 'heartier' than with a brace) but it was expensive and time consuming.

[Syscrush]

That rash I got was really irritating. It was still bugging me this morning, but I've been using hydrocortisone on it and it's OK for now. I have never had such a reaction to an adhesive used for tape or a bandage before.

The one difference between the first time and the second time is that I was out for a couple of hours on my motorcycle in the cold & the rain - soaked through my pants and long thermal underwear. Then I took TTC home and spent probably an hour with the cold wet clothing pressing hard against the tape with quite a bit of pressure. Maybe coincidence, but who knows?

[Syscrush]

Knee still sucks. Did my first yoga class tonight and liked it, I'm going to work at getting to a class at least 2x/wk. I found that it did work every place that my prescribed stretches work, plus about 50,000 more - which must be good. Gonna renew my UofT gym membership tomorrow and do some recuperative lifting a few nights a week, too. I'll also switch my commute from walking to cycling because I think it's a bit easier on the knee (although it's gotta burn fewer calories).

Tomorrow I have physio again and we're going to talk about a brace. No tape this time because the skin irritation still hasn't really healed so I'm not taking chances with the adhesive again.

[Syscrush]

This is the prescribed brace:


The Donjoy Lateral J

They have one in stock, I'm going to go try it out tomorrow or Tue.

Yesterday I did a bit of cycling for the first time in a loooooong time - a few trips around the city totally 20k, going at an easy sightseeing pace. And my knee hurt pretty much right off the bat. It never got really bad, but I'm not going to be looking at cycling as a therapeutic activity to help reduce the pain and probs with lefty.

[Double Bellybuster]

Good luck. I didn't think a soft brace like this would do anything but I was pleasantly surprised. Hopefully it lets you back to all the activities you enjoy(ed before the pain)

[Syscrush]

Good luck. I didn't think a soft brace like this would do anything but I was pleasantly surprised. Hopefully it lets you back to all the activities you enjoy(ed before the pain)

Thanks man. The J-shape inside the brace is actually a relatively hard plastic shape with padding around it, and the bifurcated strap is supposed to ensure that the lateral tension keeps the brace/patella where it should be.

I am also very skeptical and concerned that I may be counting on too much from this brace, but the tape really helped for the short time I had it on, so I'm willing to give it a shot.

[Syscrush]

I tried on the brace yesterday and my small experiments with it indicate that it seems to really help. The straps running laterally above and below the patella allow me to adjust the amount of lateral force applied to it, so there will be some fiddling to figure out what works best.

My knee is still quite sore from Saturday's cycling, so I'm resting it up and hopefully giving it a chance to heal before I put the brace on and give some real training an honest try. I'm cautiously optimistic, but can't shake my concerns/fears that what feels good for a few minutes in the PT clinic isn't gonna mean jack when it comes to 1-2 hours of running or 6-8 hours of cycling.

One thing I noticed is that using the knee was less painful for a short time after removing the brace than it was before I put it on. I don't know what that means, but thought I'd mention it.

Yoga tonight, hopefully a short run tomorrow.

[Double Bellybuster]

I tried on the brace yesterday and my small experiments with it indicate that it seems to really help.

Good stuff, hopefully it will. I had a hard time getting my head around a brace helping too. When it was explained to me that without the brace, the bottom part of my leg tended to go a bit to the outside at the knee, it started to make sense as I also knew that the resulting very minor cartilidge rubbing being described would be taking place at a rate of about 10,000 strides per hour. So even a movement of a millimetre (or more or less) could make all the difference.

Please keep us posted.

[eme]

I tried on the brace yesterday and my small experiments with it indicate that it seems to really help. The straps running laterally above and below the patella allow me to adjust the amount of lateral force applied to it, so there will be some fiddling to figure out what works best.

My knee is still quite sore from Saturday's cycling, so I'm resting it up and hopefully giving it a chance to heal before I put the brace on and give some real training an honest try. I'm cautiously optimistic, but can't shake my concerns/fears that what feels good for a few minutes in the PT clinic isn't gonna mean jack when it comes to 1-2 hours of running or 6-8 hours of cycling.

One thing I noticed is that using the knee was less painful for a short time after removing the brace than it was before I put it on. I don't know what that means, but thought I'd mention it.
Yoga tonight, hopefully a short run tomorrow.

It compresses your knee, pushing the fluid out of the swollen joint and relieving some of the discomfort.

[Syscrush]

Had my 2nd-ever yoga session last night and enjoyed it. Here are some basic rules for fatso yoga:

1) Relax, nobody is judging you. Just do your best, it will be fine.

2) DON'T LOOK IN THE MIRROR!!!

I have no way of knowing if the PT-prescribed stretches & exercises and/or the yoga are helping, but I don't see any way that they could hurt, so I'm keeping at it.

I've been resting the knee (aka finding excuses to ride my motorcycle) since last weekend's cycling and the ensuing pain is still nontrivial - so I think that tonight I'll put on the brace and do a 10-20 flight stairclimb rather than a run, just to see where I'm at.

As noted above, I've also started to get back into a very simple lifting routine that's meant mainly for fun and fitness and to hopefully aid recovery. For the time being, squats are out of bounds but I will reintroduce them if using the brace for cycling and running improves the knee pain enough.


I'm dying to go for a run - taking a measured and methodical approach is driving me nuts, but I know what happens if I let my emotions dictate what I do when it comes to this kind of problem...

[Double Bellybuster]

Sounds like progress to me.

Check this one out, this will help strengthen the VMO on the inside of your knee that helps with proper tracking:

http://ow.ly/3uNUh

I do it on a flight of stairs in my house and that works as well as a stepper.

[Syscrush]

After climbing 20 flights of stairs and almost 10k of cycling, Lefty feels pretty good - can't tell if it's from the brace or the 3 pints of Guinness. Updates to follow.

[Syscrush]

Sounds like progress to me.

Check this one out, this will help strengthen the VMO on the inside of your knee that helps with proper tracking:

http://ow.ly/3uNUh

I do it on a flight of stairs in my house and that works as well as a stepper.

Thanks DBB. PT showed me that at my last session. I asked if it does anything that a weighted squat doesn't, and she said no, as long as I'm careful with the squats. As soon as the latent pain in Lefty subsides, I'll put the squats back into the rotation alongside the bench and deads. Where it belongs.

[Syscrush]

After climbing 20 flights of stairs and almost 10k of cycling, Lefty feels pretty good - can't tell if it's from the brace or the 3 pints of Guinness. Updates to follow.

Still kinda soon to tell, but I don't think it was the Guinness. Knee feels pretty good this morning. Still sore, but a lot less than I believe I would have had if I did those activities without the brace.

[Double Bellybuster]

Glad to hear the knee is feeing better. Good work strengthening everything else too. Something that I noticed when my wife went through ridding herself of a knee brace over the last few years and myself with knee issues now is that once you succeed is taking pressure off the knee, there is a surprising number of muscles in the leg that you need to keep strong and balanced.

We are now prepared to read you are tearing up the road this summer!

[Syscrush]

Glad to hear the knee is feeing better. Good work strengthening everything else too. Something that I noticed when my wife went through ridding herself of a knee brace over the last few years and myself with knee issues now is that once you succeed is taking pressure off the knee, there is a surprising number of muscles in the leg that you need to keep strong and balanced.

We are now prepared to read you are tearing up the road this summer!

Thanks a lot, man.

I am actually doing the lifting because I like it, it makes me feel more positive than sitting and stressing about my f'n knee keeping me from running or cycling, and makes it a lot easier to stick to my diet vs. feeling depressed & giving up. Also, it never hurts to be stronger.

With that said, I don't think that the lifting will have much (if any) therapeutic value for running - even after not touching a weight for almost 5 years, I'm quite a bit stronger than the vast majority of people who could run my f'n legs off. My #'s these days are nothing to be proud of, but my one rep max for an ass-to-grass full squat is at least 225 lbs - so I don't believe that lack of general strength is really an issue. I do believe that strength imbalances between my left and right sides, and my asymmetric gait are exacerbating factors. I hope that yoga, PT, and careful running training can help that stuff. The lifting can't hurt, but given the choice between being able to squat 315 vs. run a sub-2h half I wouldn't hesitate for a second. If I can get to a point where I can focus more on running, cut a bunch of weight and get faster, I won't care at all about my powerlifting total.


Tonight will be my first tentative step back onto the treadmill since seeing the doc, doing PT, and getting the brace. Target distance is to do 1 mile including a bit of a brisk walk warmup - target pace is 6.5mph. This time tomorrow I'll have a better idea where I'm at.

[Syscrush]

1mi at 6mph and 2 deg incline seems to have gone OK. I'll know better tomorrow - and if I feel OK I'll probably do the same thing again.

[Syscrush]

1mi at 6mph and 2 deg incline seems to have gone OK. I'll know better tomorrow - and if I feel OK I'll probably do the same thing again.

After my run last night, I did a double-length session of stretching, and by the end of it my knee was pretty sore. Obviously I couldn't tell if the pain was due more to the stretching or the run, but this morning the pain is almost gone.

If it doesn't get worse during the day, I'll try another easy 1mi run tonight and see what happens.

[Syscrush]

1mi @ 6mph again tonight. No discomfort to speak of in the knee during the run, hopefully that's a good sign.

[Sir Crashalot]

Good to hear!

[Syscrush]

I had a bit of soreness after last night's run (OK, OK, last night's short jog), and climbing stairs hurts a bit today, but not bad.

Right now I'm pretty confident that the brace helps, but it is way too soon to tell if it helps enough for me to actually get back to running for real or not.