Whattaya Mean I Can’t Run Again?

Posted in Featured, Outside the Lines | 8 comments

I haven’t posted anything in a week and a half and I’ll give you the top two reasons why…

1) I have a tendency to be lazy, an affliction that has dogged me for years.
2) I’ve been dealing with a knee injury that has taken me down a bit.

Right when I was getting ready to write about letter-of-intent day and trashing the Huskies for something, I got the news that my knee injury was more serious than what the MRI had shown.

My doctor, Tom Castle, said I had meniscus damage and other particles that were floating around due to arthritis. I’d have arthroscopic surgery and that would be that, just like it was in 2001 when I had the same surgery on the other knee.

But when he got inside the knee, he found other stuff, not very good stuff such as a microfractured femur or kneecap or something that shouldn’t be microfractured.

The upshot: I guess he drilled a couple of holes in the bone that releases something that resembles cranberry jam – that’s what he called it anyway. Maybe it’s blood and platelets or something, I’m not sure.

Anyway, I was told at my follow-up appointment that I need to keep all of my 230 pounds off my right leg for the next five weeks to allow the cranberry jam to form an “artificial” type of cartilage that will let my knee operate like it should.

And the way I understand it, if you don’t keep your weight off of it and don’t get on a stationary bike for two to three hours a day, the cranberry jam turns bone-like instead of cartilage-like, and that’s not what you want.

So I’m coming to grips with three things:
1) Being on crutches for the next five weeks. You never realize what a hassle that is until you’re on crutches. The crutches aren’t so bad – it’s just that you can’t carry anything while you’re hobbling all over the place.
2) Dr. Castle told me I should get on a stationary bike for three hours a day. He’s not looking for the cardio benefits; he wants “motion” in the knee. I got a membership at Planet Fitness and spent 90 minutes on the bike this afternoon, but I wasn’t able to do a full rotation with the pedals because of soreness and stiffness in the knee.
3) Dr. Castle also said I should never run again. Out of everything, this is the worst news of all. I tell myself I’m OK with that when I’m really not. I’ve been running for 35 years, and I’m probably in this situation as a result – I’m guessing that pounding the pavement when you’re 20 pounds overweight isn’t the smartest thing in the world, but that’s what I’ve been doing.

So I’m coming to grips with that. Castle said I could golf again so that’s cool. If he told me I couldn’t golf again, I’d be too drunk to be writing a new post right now.

I’m being philosophical about it and doing the best that I can to follow Castle’s instructions. I want to play Horse with my kids in the driveway. I want to walk my dog again. I want to be a single-digit handicapper.

But it’s been a blow. To think that I’ll never run again after doing it for so long is tough. Oh well, thanks for stopping by the site again. And above all else…

Go Cougs.