Friday, September 9, 2016

Self Healing - How My Knee Fixed Itself

On September 9, 2008 (8 years ago) I twisted my knee playing dodge ball at 12th St. Gym. I didn't go to the doctor. Instead I let it fix itself. I kept notes. They were down my basement between a bunch of magazines I finally decided to throw away. I thought these would be good to keep. (Looking through these notes, I was pretty jacked up during the Fall off 2008).


9-9-02 12th st. 

Twisted right knee playing dodge ball. Still walking but limping badly. Swollen, icing tonight. Recap - wrist, left, limited range of motion (ROM) pain when supinated. Wrist bone seems enlarged. Left forearm - rash trying to return. Treating right shoulder, lateral pain - getting better. Therapy pain when rotating anti-clockwise w/ elbow bent.

9-10-08

Challenging day, knee is jacked. Did USP class, will do 12th tomorrow. Taking ibuprophen - cut the ALRI (don't remember what this is) take 2 glocusamine, icing often. PAB (the gig) tonight. Rash forming ring, UGH!! Another battle.

9-13-08

Day 4 - walking better. Leg can support weight. Limping more out of habit than pain. Still swollen. Treatment - Tiger baum, rubbing alcohol, knee brace. Physical therapy, ice @ home, heat at work. Walking slow pace - make all classes this week. Rash increasing despite neosporin (alternating between this and tinactin) treatment.

9-11-08

Knee improves. Can put weight on it. Can run/hop for the bus. P/u tiger baum, alcohol. Still on Ibu. Still wrapped, still icing.

ALRI on hold til workouts resume. Remember 6 miles goal. Run-centric during the fall. Kill the beer, red wine... maybe rum, but no coke. Shoulder issue next agg treatment after knee.

9-16-08

Knee still hurts, but still improving.

9-19-08

Day 10 - Knee - It's been a while since I updated. Therapy continues more physical now. Taught all classes, no longer sleeping w/ ice. Can feel the 'click' when I twist the knee in sleep. Around day 7 & 8 began to regain range of motion in contraction. Able to put more weight on it, but no running yet. Decline (hills) are still tough and I still wake up w/ minor pain. Leg gets stiff when I sit too long. Phys therapy isn't consistent beyond everyday. Still. Start weight therapy after day 14?? Sept. 23.

Shoulder - more aggressive therapy ice/heat - tiger baum.


Monday September 22, 2008

I need to get back to 100%.
Left wrist maybe 70%
Rt shoulder, can't do a one-arm pushup.
Rt knee 70% walking better. Climbing steps. No running. No jumping. Maybe on trampoline.
Lower back - not so sore anymore, possibly due to sore knee. Start phys therapy tomorrow.

Wed. Sept 24, 2008

Knee stronger. Can walk but not run. Can jump a little. Put weight on it at 12th St, on 9-23-08.

Oct 2, 2008 Day 23

Swelling down. soft areas on either side of the knee cap. Can't run. Can jump a little and walk without severe limp. Can put weight on leg and work out slightly. Been doing one-legged presses, two legged squats and no wt. squats - working on pistols w/ rt (bad) leg.

Shoulder issue continues. Working on one-arm pressing, 60 lb dumbbell, left wrist issue persists. Balance on moving vehicles returning.

Super UP today!!

Oct 8, 08

Technically, this is day 29 of the knee thing. Yesterday I ran for a bus and a train, made them both. Still some knee pain. Don't want to try and run distances yet. Leg is not swelling after classes. I'm jumping more and I'm more effective.

shoulder is new focus had to treat ice/heat - must start - want to lift again - been raising and holding wt over head with plates w/ holes, kettle bells and 60 lb dumbbells. Also hanging and pulling up. One-legged presses to build leg strength.

Got a haphazard workout routine.

Been dropping weight despite leg and no lift. Hit 181 over the weekend and shot up to 185 afterwards. Must be the booze. Stopped drinking til New Years.

Oct 9 (2008)

Day 30 of knee rehab.

I need to brace this sucker when i sleep. I feel it when I roll over. walking pace is pretty good. Need to increase distance w/o pain. Should see Dr. about knee and shoulder.. UGH!.

Rt shoulder iced this morning - worked rt yesterday @ USP GX and after, worked at 12 St, with k-bells. It was sore last night. It's sore now (1430 ish at subway stop). I think I'm over trained "cold" is lingering. More rest on weekends? Crazy weight this week...

15 Oct 2008

Day 36 After bracing knee during sleep and @ work for 2 days it feels much better, would say 90-93% back to normal. Impact makes for pain. Recovering well. Now focus on shoulder. Played dodge ball Tues (Oct 14) throwing seemed to help the shoulder. Raised and held 40 lb kettle bell Oct 14th also. Pushed six plates on leg press at 12th.

Oct. 19 Day 40 Brooklyn

Danced and walked on the knee. It was stiff after being immobile during the 3 hr bus ride to NYC. It's stiff at wake up and I'm a bit wobbly. I can squat nicely with no pain and hold it. Twisting pain occurs when inside of heel encounters an object. Shoulder is still tender. Felt good after dodge ball. When to start jogging??

Oct 26, 2008 Day 46

I jogged .1 mile at USP Wednesday, knee hurt but didn't swell. I'm wearing the brace to bed. I can feel "movement" when I roll over. I thought I left this book in Brooklyn.

Oct 27, 2008 Dodge ball

Rt side groin pain, maybe a pull? Took IBU approx 2230 after eating at Cosi and do dodge ball and leg and k-bell workout. No lumps/bumps in pelvic area. Fever? No feeling of nausea. discomfort taking deep breaths.

Trying to get comfortable. Standing bent - ok - sitting, no good. drinking water. Get me thru this nite w/o emergency room. Ibu kicked in. Tracking symptoms. Not sweating.. yet. HR? (heart rate). Nopain urinating. No discoloration. No apparent blood. Maybe if I get a nod it will feel better (2350) Another freekin' injury?! Perhaps I'm pushing a bit much. Muscles I've never used to this level before. I'm tired too, which might amplify the pain. 0:10 28 Oct 08 - Pain has subsided. the Ibu? or has the muscle chilled??

(I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I started going through this journal. It looks like i had a lot of other problems coming back to back and i was taking a LOT of Ibuprofen, which I'd completely forgotten about and would have denied if i hadn't noted it in my notebook. So let's skip to the final entry. The problems weren't resolved. Maybe I was writing about them elsewhere, or maybe I just quit documenting my problems. 2008 was - I suppose - a rebirth year, a "1" year. I think about the election, my dad's passing and all the kids who were born that year. I didn't until now think about all the injuries I suffered. it was also my first full year of group fitness training.) 

Nov 1 0500

Woke with pelvic pain. 600 Ibu, pain lasted about an hour. Applied heat pad to area. Finally got back to sleep. Hint of pain seems present at all times. Appx 0720, 600 Ibu headed off pain.


Apparently I've never completely tracked an injury from beginning to end. I thought I did with this one. Hmmm. Everything got better and I don't think - or remember making any trips to the doctor, or missing any of the fitness classes I was teaching at the time. This kind of mass injury event hasn't happened since. (I got food poisoning in 2008 also.) Of course I've made a lot of changes since then. Over all I'm healthier and arguably stronger (although not the way I would have measured strength in 2008). Anyway, that's my memory. I spent more time than expected on this.

Ciao.

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