My quadriceps

Yesterday, while walking into the bagel shop, I felt kind of a bizarre cramping in my right quadriceps, and I felt it this morning too. I think my quad is starting to weaken. Perhaps "atrophy" is too strong of a word, but the muscle is definitely a lot smaller than the left quad. This is exacerbated by the fact that the left one is now doing even more work. I left a message with my surgeon's nurse, and she has been prompt in returning my phone calls in the past. Today though, she didn't call back; I will call her again in the morning. I feel like an experienced PT person could rig up a brace for my knee to protect it and then I could do some supervised quad strengthening. Older folks with degenerative tears that have to wait often do pre-surgery PT - my request can't be that uncommon.

My third opinion, a surgeon down in New York, has still not given my dad his opinion yet on my knee. I would certainly like to know it, even though I presume that it will the same - partial meniscectomy.

10 days to go.

Cold rain

It's really gross outside. Winds 20-30, occasional sideways rain, temps in the 40's. This is one of the few instances so far that my knee has helped me out, because there is nothing worse than running in cold rain. Of course, I could have engineered an off day for today, but that's another story. Today I would have been in Philadelphia for Penn Homecoming, but I had to decline on account of . . . . of course, the torn cartilage. Luckily, even with non-refundable plane tickets AirTran gave me some semblance of a refund (minus $50 dollars). I'll have $109 dollars toward future flights, and I already have trips planned to Pennsylvania in April 07 and June 07, not to mention the Passover holiday in Maryland.

This might be a good time to talk about running in the rain. I am not one of those macho types who says suck it up or it will make you stronger etc. I hate running in the rain. However, if rain (or snow) forced a serious runner to not run, then that would mean a lot of missed days. Sometimes, you just have to shove your body out there, and wear the best clothes you have. I have a Marmot synthetic top that works really well, especially under an old-fashioned 1970's era nylon vest. This shirt might qualify me as a "yuppie runner," but the fact that A) I'm running in the rain at all, and B) I'm not wearing a $500 dollar GoreTex rainsuit (the Marmot shirt was a gift), that point is wasted. Also, in my real life as an engineer, I make WAAAY too little cash to qualify as a yuppie.

I would also comment that, yes, I hurt my knee while running the rain. Conditions that night were vastly different than right now. It was 10 degrees warmer and drizzling. The rain was a non-factor - it was my fault that I attempted to long jump the stagnant pool [puddle not draining].

Phone Interview

Even though the menisectomy is 2 weeks away, today I had the pre-op phone interview. They ask you a bunch of questions (history of heart disease ? any bad allergies ?) and answer any questions you might have. There were a surprising amount of mental health questions, including asking whether I was depressed as a result of the injury. Some questions I had involved the overall length (1 hour surgery, but 5 hours total), and the anesthesia. I've never had a "general" before and I must admit that even though I want to get this done, I'd be lying if I said the anesthesia didn't make me nervous. Someone else will be pumping drugs into me to force sleep and probably paralysis. Not to mention how much I.V.'s also stink. You get the point. On a lighter note, the nurse commented that I should write "27 SWM seeking SF" on my leg so the surgical nurses will know I'm single and available.

When I was initially evaluated, the doc suspected a torn palpateal tendon, which is in the back and connects to the top of the calf muscle. I'm assuming that a tear would have shown up somewhere, or someone would have told me if I had torn it, but that area is occasionally painful. Perhaps I strained it badly when I tore the cartilage.

This is the first post

Let's set the stage here of what is going on. I'm an average runner, but I'm pretty serious about it and enjoy it quite a bit. I run competitively for a club (www.gbtc.org) and am still improving many years after college.

Last Tuesday something out of the ordinary happened. While running (or more accurate, leaping over a puddle while running), I landed awkwardly and tore my right lateral meniscus. Luckily, I didn't cream any of my ligaments, but the damage was done. I need an arthroscopic procedure to fix it (more on that tomorrow), and I am currently waiting for a time slot. Right now, I'm scheduled for two weeks from now, on November 9th, for a partial menisectomy. This means the doc will just clean up my tear and remove enough busted cartilage to give me full function. It takes all of an hour, shorter than most boring lunchtime sales pitches.

However, I cannot run. More accurately, before the procedure I can't really do much of anything. This is the point of this blog, as a healthy place to vent. Perhaps after it is all over, when I'm back to the track full tilt or swooshing down the ski slopes, I will continue this blog as a simple running blog. At the moment though, we're going to focus on my torn meniscus and the mental aspect of not being able to do the thing you love the most. Right now, its pretty crummy. To be continued en viernes.