It's Bad Luck to Be Superstitious

Sometimes I like to kid myself into thinking that I'm not a superstitious person, when in reality I probably knock on wood more than your average woodpecker. So at the self-perceived risk of jinxing myself, I kind of almost want to say that my knee has been feeling better lately.

Now, I have to be extremely cautious about even thinking this for multiple reasons:

1.RE-INJURY!!!!

The last time I got it in my thick skull that my knee was feeling decent was a few weeks after my initial injury. So what did I do? Get back on my bike and ride full out, of course!! And what was the result? RE-INJURY!!! Which I am sure has massively prolonged this whole craptastic experience sometimes charmingly referred to as re-hab.

2. PAIN FLUCTUATION

That's a somewhat technical sounding way of saying that one day the ol' knee might tell me he's doing pretty OK! Later that day?? Uh...turns out, not so much. Good days and bad days?? Hah! How about OK hours and downright miserable ones. Knee shenanigans abound!

3. JINX!!!!

I'm superstitious, remember?

That being said, I think that maybe...possibly...please??...some of the things that I've been doing, may have contributed to some positive results.

So here are the winners...for now:

1. FOAM ROLLER

Purchased on the advice of the chiropractor I saw awhile back, the foam roller has turned out to be quite a useful tool. I kind played with it a little for awhile, not using it to it's full potential, and subsequently blew it off. Then I stumbled on a part of my inner thigh, right around my VMO, that seemed to trigger pain right in the spot where it always hurts the most (inner or medial side of right knee). Some refer to this as a trigger point, and it turns out there is a whole part of "medicine" revolving around myofascial release and trigger points. The more I roll out this part of my leg on the roller (which hurts like bejesus at first, but gets easier if you stick with it) the better my knee would gradually feel! I also found some additional good techniques for this here.

2. TAPING

My last physical therapist had me using Leukotape to use the McConnell methods of taping my patella so it would isolate and move medially where it belongs. That has yielded mixed results, and I've used it quite a bit. Recently I found Kinesio Tape, which works on a totally different principle. Rather than immobilizing or restraining muscles etc. It allows full range of motion and instead encourages lymphatic / blood flow and may help muscles to contract / expand properly. It's all a bit voodoo-esque, but I saw so many Olympic athletes and Lance "Mellow Johnny"Armstrong himself using the stuff, so I figured "what the hell?" One of my big issues has been the swelling just below my kneecap that just won't seem to go away, so figured I could benefit from some lymphatic flow, whatever that may be. Well, so far, so good. It's hard to tell if the swelling has really gone down, but my knee has been feeling better so hey, GO KINESIO!

3. NEW KNEE REGIMENT

This one is still somewhat unproven, but I downloaded a new knee regiment. I've seen lots, and most of them were free, but I had to pay for this one. They seem legit with their money back guarantee, so why not? It seems pretty right on so far. It seems to stray away from all of the "strengthen your VMO" heavy stuff that seems to be out there. That makes more sense to me because as this program says, there are WAY more muscles connecting your knee to your hip, than your quads. And your hip muscles control the alignment of your femur, which directly affects patellar tracking. Which is my problem!!!

4. AVOID FORUMS LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!!

They seem like a great idea at first, don't they?? You throw your symptoms into the ol' Googler, and holy crap, you actually get some relevant results!!! You might even actually find some specific treatments after hours of digging through stale threads on "bike forums" or "knee guru" and think that you might be on to something. And then you dig deeper, past all of the snarky one liners, beyond the flame wars and other tom-foolery, still further into the depths of ultra-depressing threads that match your questions exactly, nearly word for word...only to go un-answered, just hanging there in cyberspace like a deflated wallflower at the junior high dance. And what do you have to show for it all of your desperate searching? A bunch of contradictory advice, scary horror stories and a massive headache to boot. Do yourself a favor and STAY AWAY!!! In fact, why are your even reading this? I'm not a doctor!!! Sheesh.

Looking for balance.

Yes it's a cliche. I don't care. I need to find balance in my life. Physically, emotionally. The massive general  imbalance in my life is manifesting itself physically. I hurt my knee by doing something stupid. But the rest of my pain is different. My body is telling me something. Get it together. Figure it out.

Big Knee Pain

Here's a link to a good breakdown of strengthening / stretching exercises for knee pain. There are tons of different version of these on the web, but this is one of the better comprehensive versions I've seen. No pics, but they're explained well enough without any. I incorporate some of these into my daily routine. You have to use what seems to work for you and your body. The most important thing is to avoid anything that aggravates your knee. You'll only make things worse.

LISTEN TO YOUR BODY!

Tilted Patella

One significant step along my ongoing (and seemingly never-ending) path to recovery, was seeing x-rays of my knee at a visit to the orthopedist. One of the three x-rays that were taken, showed a view of my knee from what would essentially be the P.O.V. of my foot, with my knee bent about 45 degrees. So basically, I could see the bottom of my patella. What it showed was that my patella was tilted laterally (to the outside of my right leg), instead of being down the groove between my femur (thigh bone) and my tibia (shin bone) where it's supposed to be. Hmmmm....

So great! Now we can see what the problem is! Just tell me what to do and I'll do it! Give me the miracle cure. Surgery? Stretches? Chanting?

Well...guess what? It turns out that there are many possible causes of this condition, including that maybe my patella already had a tendency to be titled before I ever got on a bike. WHAT?!? Seriously?!? In that case, it would seem that taking an x-ray of my left knee would have been in order. Apparently that wasn't what my doctor thought. What do I know anyway?

One prevalent theory seems to be that there is a muscular imbalance at the root of the problem. For instance, my IT band (the muscle that runs all the way from the side of your hip to your kneecap) is tight or too strong, and is pulling my knee laterally (to the outside), while my VMO (Vastus medialus - one of the four muscles that make up your Quadriceps) is weak and not opposing the lateral force and pulling the kneecap back in the other direction, or medially (to the inside).

OK, so all I need to do is strengthen my VMO and loosen up my IT band right? Problem solved!

I only wish it was that simple. I've been down that road for months with little to no positive results. Leg lifts, such as lying flat and raising my injured leg up in sets, along with work with a foam roller to loosen up my IT band have yielded bupkis, even after a lot of work an patience. I'm still incorporating these exercises into my daily PT regiment, but I think they are at best only part of the puzzle, or at worst actually aggravating the problem.

More on some new potential treatments soon.

Re-Focus

So it's been about 6 months since my last post. The original point of my blog was to chronicle my cycling adventures. Obviously that hit a severe roadblock after my knee injury. It's been a long and extremely frustrating path since then. My father passed away, my favorite activity vanished and I had to constantly deal with pain, even in every day activities. I've been to a chiropractor, an acupuncturist, an orthopedic doctor and a physical therapist. With all of that treatment, you'd think I would have made tremendous progress. I figured I would have been back on the bike months ago and out there mashing with rest of em.' Unfortunately that hasn't been the case at all and in fact, I have little to show in terms of progress in recovery. 

I've also spent countless hours scouring the net for any leads on a cure for this ailment. As is the case with virtually every other subject (especially the medical variety), there is such a wide range of opinions on the subject of knee injuries, that it can be at the very least, an extremely daunting endeavor. To add to that, the knee in particular seems to be an especially elusive body part to understand. With all of the progress I seem to hear about being made in the medical world, I am constantly surprised by how little is known about the causes and proper treatments of knee injuries.

While this blog has been mostly for me to document my cycling related experiences for myself, I'm hoping that as I re-focus my attention on knee injuries, that hopefully some of the information I document will be of use to others who are looking for answers.

And unfortunately, even with all of the information I've accumulated, I'm still not very far along in terms of recovery. I still can't really ride my bike without pain, and often have pain even from the most mundane activities. That being said, lately I've been closing in on some possible new treatments, and once again I'll push on ahead and hope that they work.

My Knee, The Traitor

I've been nursing the right knee for the last two weeks since the century, and as of last week, I felt like it was getting somewhat better. So I went on a little bit longer of a ride yesterday and despite a little tenderness, it seemed to be holding up fairly well. So that got my hopes up a little, thinking that I might actually be able to go back to my beloved daily bicycle commutes. You know what they say about getting your hopes up right? Well, basically...don't.

I attempted the usual 10 mile commute to work today and after only about 4 miles, I could tell that I wasn't ready for it. My knee started it's damned aching pain again. By mile 8, I was in a lot more pain and just trying to make it to work at all. By the time I got there, my knee felt like it did the day after the century. Throbbing with pain. So basically, I feel like I just set the healing process back two weeks, and now I have to start all over again. And yes, I knew this was a possible outcome of riding too soon. And yes, I'm an idiot.

So it's back to square one. Stretching, R.I.C.E., and as little cycling as possible. Like pretty much none except for to and from the train. I'm going to try some new physical therapy ideas and some Glucosamine & Chondroitin supplements as well. Supposedly, they can help lubricate joints and help rebuild cartilage.

At this point, I'm willing to try standing on my head and praying to Kneebu, god of the knees.

Girl On The Loose

My "live-in lover" rode her bike to work for the first time today! That old Raleigh we picked up turned out to be a pretty sweet ride. I must say I'm somewhat conflicted though. While I'm thrilled that she may have a new transportation option for her commute, being a daily bicycle commuter myself, I know the pitfalls. Ultimately, it's not as scary for cyclists out there as the media seems to want to portray it, but nonetheless, she's my girlfriend + I'm a worrier = me nervous.

Here's a shot of "The Land Yacht" parked on the streets of West Hollywood where she works.



I'm usually not a big fan of chain / cord locks, but she works about 10 yards away from this spot and can see the bike through a giant window of the schmancy hair salon where she works the whole time. No need to break out the Kryptonite here.