Well, I have sad news this month. I hurt my knee, and it is no fun. Turns out hurt knees hurt!
I actually hurt my knee back in April, in the tiniest turn to the right while walking – so tiny that when I demonstrated the turn to my doctor, she didn’t see it – she said, “when are you going to turn?” But my knee sure knew I had turned.
So, the past 8 weeks or so, I have been doing very little walking. It was just getting back to feeling better, and last week I stepped with determination at the end of loading up my car for a camping trip and ouch!
I hurt this knee 25 years ago while cycling in Toronto, and I have a large double scar across my kneecap – my personal souvenir of Toronto’s famous streetcar tracks. So I always call it my ‘good knee’ since it’s been so good to me after the injury. But I have a suspicion something is amiss inside that knee, as the pain comes and goes…
So now I’ve booked in for that x-ray I didn’t get around to after the first hurt. And I’m trying to identify ways I can stay even mildly active while I deal with… whatever this is.
Sam has been an inspiration in many ways to me (see posts here and here, for example) not the least of which the way she stayed active through waiting for and then having two knee replacements! Fun fact – her surgeon is my surgeon, because in about the same time frame I’ve had two hip repairs.
As someone who’s lived with hip pain for years, it’s been a shock to realize how unprotected our knee joints are – they’re just out there bending in any direction our muscles let them go.
I’m still working a very intense (and fascinating!) business job and my project of work-life balance is ongoing… but I can’t walk too far right now.
Do you have some advice on staying active with limited mobility? I’m needing it! Do you have a great, non-weight bearing yoga routine you can point me to? I’d love to hear it.
Let me know, because I think I’m in this for a while.
Thanks!
Hey, I’m so sorry. I found Fowler Kennedy physio at Western super helpful and went for years until that no longer worked and I got on the waitlist for surgery. Here’s hoping physio works for you. And yes, knees are hopeless joints.
oh no. Take care of yourself! Streaming pilates classes is my go to when weight bearing like walking and running aren’t possible. Or swimming with a pull buoy between my knees. But those may not appeal. Sending wishes tat physio sorts this out for you.
It might help to work with a strength trainer and/or physical therapist to find exercises to support that knee. I was diagnosed with stage 4 knee arthritis 11 years ago, and strength and flexibility work have kept me going with no limits until very recently. I also just modify yoga poses as needed to keep from having to bend the knee in a way it objects to. Example: in child’s pose, that knee might be off to the side a bit, or even straight back, so I can still bend the good knee. That requires an instructor who is not too stuck on certain details, or online yoga where no one is watching…