Knee Surgery Journal - 21 Days Post Surgery

Today marks exactly one year since my last run outside in Minneapolis. When I was in Peru on Thanksgiving I did three runs outside and was feeling rather elated.  It was the first time in eight months I had run for more than a minute or so. Then when I came home, I did three treadmill runs in early
December as was prescribed to see if I was still improving.. The latter is where I knew that my previous meniscus surgery repair did not work. It was clear that it wasn't a muscle imbalance issue and wasn't that I hadn't done my therapy correctly. 

It is also amazing what perspective does for someone. I am now three weeks out from my last partial knee replacement surgery. It feels as if no time has passed at all. Before my surgery last year, the longest I had ever gone without running was 14 days.  Now being told that three months from the surgery I should be running again feels like it will be here before I know it. And knowing I should be able to swim in three weeks makes me even happier.

My latest PT session had me getting my knee to 114 degree bent and -6 degrees straight for a nice round 120 degrees of Range Of Motion. And today I was down a little more weight even though I felt I might actually had put on a few pounds. Instead, I am sitting at 209.3.  Baby steps there.

I am remaining optimistic. Even with my limitations, I feel the best I have in over a year and half. I remind myself often that I am 15 years older than my father was when he lost the use of his leg. Each step is a gift but I want more. I crave to return to running and the goals I have set.  To continue to do things never done before and to check off so many boxes that have been empty the last five years or so becasue of COVID and then this injury.

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Knee Surgery Journal - 17 Days Post Surgery

 Since I last posted, I have given up my walker entirely (after nine days) and switched to a cane.  Not just any cane but the actual cane my father used for 30-plus years of his life.I am realizing I was taller than my father as the cane just doesn't fit right.  But then again, even after using the cane for just a few days, I rarely use it at all unless I am going outdoors and need some more stability.

I have had a follow-up with my doctor and a PT sessions since my last post.  Doctor said the surgery went great and my incision looks excellent.  I was warned that there is a shelf life in this knee and if I return to running I will wear that shelf-life down. Somewhere in the 5-10 year period perhaps.  I am not using this a fodder for the "I will show them!" crowd or those lame stories that will "the doctor said I would never walk again but look at me now!" but rather just to manage my expectations and hopefully still surpass them. Perhaps that is all I can get out of this knee and will need to have further surgery.  If so, in the year 2035 (how is that freaking possible that that is just ten years away) when Trump is either in jail or has died, I will have to get another surgery. I understand that each surgery increases the risk of infection but I hope that we can make sure that doesn't happen one third of the way through this 21st century.

My PT session was a good one with me being able to crank my knee to about 106 degrees of flexion and also past 0 degrees to straighten. It hurts to do so, but that's fine. I need to work through the scar tissue and make this knee work for me again. My at home PT is going decent as well as I continue to strengthen the quad muscles and bend and bend and bend the knee.

I am down to 210.8 pounds which isn't too bad since that is almost entirely by diet alone. My pre-surgery physical and day of blood draw showed that I have elevated bilirubin (which I always knew) but also some higher than I would like sugar an cholesterol levels. However, as I gained 50 lbs I know that will come down in the near future.  Looking to get another physical some time in maybe July to see how those numbers have improved.

The past week I have implemented doing a short 20 minute set of chest, shoulders, back, and biceps once or twice a day to strengthen my upper body and burn some calories. I was told that in 4 weeks I can begin swimming again which was a really nice surprise. I truly think that once I return to running, I will likely bring my miles back down to pre-pandemic levels. I averaged roughly 2500 miles a year before COVID.  After, with less races and more time spent at home, I was over 3,000. I can see making my lies count much more than counting my miles in the future, supplementing with a return to swimming and maybe (yuck) some cycling as well. 

All told, the weight is down, the knee is bending, and things are looking good so far.  I have been told that a full knee replacement often has a constant trajectory of healing whereas partial seems to have ebbs and flows. So I am ready for that if it is the case.

Thanks for following along! Another report in likely a week.

Knee Surgery Journal - Eight Days Post Surgery

I have an initial physical therapy evaluation under my belt and one full PT session. Amongst other things I utilized during the full PT session was this machine that locked your leg in place and you then used a hand crank to move your leg straight and then the opposite way to get it bent. 

Straight was a piece of cake.  Getting it to 0 degrees was no problem and the 30 seconds I kept it there before moving to bent was actually a pleasurable feeling.

Bending the knee was a different story. I was happy to get a good 3-4 degrees past 90 degrees but it definitely took a little work. By the fifth time of both of these exercises I was ready for a break.

I am still using my walker to get around and haven't felt the need to push it walking-wise. There is virtually no pain from doing so but definitely the entire area is a little weak and wonky.  What I can tell already is that the pain I had in my knee from simply walking no longer seems to be present. In other words, half of this surgery's purpose, for me, was to alleviate the pain. The other half was to allow me to get back to running again. It is obviously early days in that portion of the plan but the relief from the pain that, at the end of the last few months had me limping with every step is enormous.

Haven't weighed myself this week as I know I am losing weight and want to wait maybe another week to see a bigger drop.

Meanwhile, I finally took the bandage off my knee after a week and yes I will have a doozy of a scar but I have a body full of scars so it doesn't bother me too much.  If it heals anything like the hand surgery scar I had I will be quite happy. Then again, if it functions properly it can be as ugly as it wants.  I think my days of runway model are behind me anyway. 

A little picture for posterity.  I like how Texas Ranger (my walker) made an appearance in the background there.  That little scamp.

Virtually no bruising that I can see and the swelling has done nothing but go down since the surgery.  Both  are those are a surprise.  The lines on my leg you see were put their by the surgery team and I have not felt it necessary to pub hard enough when I shower to clean them off. I do not wish to pull the flesh and damage the stitches or sutures.

Right now I have very high hopes and am feeling optimistic if already a bit impatient. How I went two months on crutches and then months barely walking is beyond me.

Knee Surgery Journal - Four Days Post Surgery

Surgery to get my partial knee replacement was on Thursday February 6th.  I was talking to everyone as they placed me on the operating table and then BLAM, I was out. Tow hours later I started to come to in the recovery area. It then took me a good hour before I was remotely cognizant and was taken to my own room. For the remainder of that day I felt fairly good. Virtually no pain in my knee. That seemed a bit odd until I was reminded I had an injection in my spine as well as a pain blocker on my legs. Not being able to feel anything below the waist means you also don't feel pain.

I had to spend the night in the hospital and slept decently considering I was awoken every 90 minutes to take some type of drug or have some sort of vitals recorded. Standard procedure and no complaints but come morning I was a bit groggy. My surgeon came in and told me that everything went well and I was unremarkable. I wanted to argue with him as I felt insulted and then I recalled you want "unremarkable". 

I left the hospital on Friday around lunch and now that I had feeling in my legs again the pain was rearing its ugly head. The first night at home was not brutal but far from fun as I could not possibly find a single position to fall asleep in that did not cause me pain. Pain medication helped for sure.

My second day home slid by in a haze. My third day post surgery was finally the first day that I was able to relieve myself. (Not trying to be gross; just documenting it for others who might experience the same thing.) It's funny how being unable to bend your leg makes it difficult to do some of the simplest things that our body wants to do. Super Bowl Sunday was my third day post surgery and I could put full weight on my knee while standing, even if I did not feel quite ready to walk on it yet. 

Monday I slept in until an unbelievably late hour simply because my medicines knocked me TF out. I was been able to walk around with the walker with no problem whatsoever and was getting excited about physical therapy that evening. At PT, I was able to get my leg to 90 degrees flexion with some discomfort. I was told that getting here in two weeks was the goal so I was at least ahead of that. I was also advised that while walking could be done without the walker, that walking was not part of my PT for now.

All told, while this is a rather dull and dry recap of the past few days (I blame the drugs because boy howdy they are strong) I am happy that nothing remarkable has happened. Full physical therapy begins Wednesday. Keeping all my hopes in check but excited for the possibilities.

Knee Surgery Journal - Day Three

I am not intending to post every day here but had a couple of things I wanted to add so I figured I could do so now.

I rode my bike indoors on Day one as I said and then went and swam later in the day. I have a pretty standard workout that I do when I swim which consists of four separate 500-yard sets. I call it the “Dane Workout” and it's something that has served me greatly in the past. During the first 500 I was feeling remarkably good. Part of it was because I was swimming in the afternoon, and I am simply not one who functions well in the morning. The workout went downhill soon after that with me having virtually no energy. I barely got my last 500 in under 7 minutes after swimming a 6:35 for the first one.

I got home, made some dinner, and went about the rest of my evening. A few hours later I touched my arm and it was sore where I had received both the COVID and flu vaccines earlier in the day. Almost smacked my head remembering that of course I was going feel a little lethargic in my swim after a couple of vaccines.

The next day I decided not to swim and simply ride indoors on the trainer twice. Both workouts were pretty difficult as I once again was quite tired. Today I did one workout this morning and felt a little bit better. This is also now the third straight day where I have completely cut out any sort of snacking whatsoever on the foods that I thoroughly enjoy eating. I knew there was no way that there was any actual discernible weight loss in just two days time but I wanted to get on the scale nevertheless. I know I have to take into account everything from the fact that I wasn't wearing clothes, I just sweated off a few pounds on the bike, I had rid myself of all impurities in my body (I pooped and peed), as well as it was a different scale from the first time I had weighed myself on Monday.

Sweaty on a trainer. Barely awake.

That all said, I was down 9 lbs from Monday to 213.8 . Again, I know that I have not lost 9 lbs of fat in that time but I know I have started the process towards losing that and much more I feel good in my ability to make all the changes necessary to lose that weight and get back to running and running fast.
I have run 19 sub-three hour marathons in my life. I turned 49 in May. I have not run a single sub-three hour marathon in my 40s and only have a year left to do so. 

Shockingly, I've only run 8 marathons in the decade of my 40s. Part of that comes from a three-year layoff during COVID and then basically another two years dealing with this knee. But I am putting this goal out there that before I turn 50 I will run another sub-three hour marathon. If I do, that will be just shy of 20 years between my first and most recent sub-three.

I want to continue to show people to Ignore The Impossible.

Knee Surgery Journal - Day One

I have decided to keep a rather detailed (or more detailed than telling virtually no one) account of my upcoming knee surgery, my failed meniscus root rear repair surgery, and (hopefully) my return to running again. I hope this will help others find some answers, be inspired, or entertain.

***

The quest to get back into shape starts today, 01.27.25 even before the knee surgery scheduled for 02.06.25 begins. Here's the ugly beginning.

When I finished running #everysinglestreet of Minneapolis, I was in the best shape I had been in for years. I weighed 174 lbs. Felt great. Was ready to start setting some new PRs again.

However, about two months later, after a lackluster half-marathon, my first ever marathon DNF, and

another less-than-stellar half-marathon, I noticed how my left leg was not working properly. It ends up that was the beginning of the end of my left knee working properly. (There were other races, an extended cleaning of my mother's house which probably didn't help, and other things but life has a lot of other components that happen but don't necessarily mean they were the cause of some malady. So I will likely not mention them.)

I took a major downturn in running May-September as I upped my cycling miles to get ready for a half-ironman. That race went poorly (mostly because of weather) and then one month later I tore my meniscus (which I didn't know at the time.) Three plus month of very low running and I finally got the meniscus tear discovery. At my pre-op physical, I am shocked to see I weigh 201, the most I have weighed since I played rugby in college.

Surgery done, I start my recovery, and I knew I was putting on weight. The truth is I don't know what my heaviest was as I didn't weigh myself at that point. However, after working out with weights, I knew I lost some pounds and at a PT appointment hopped on the scale: 223lbs. Egads.

I went to Paris to watch the Olympics, walked about 7-10 miles every day for three weeks even though my knee was killing me most every day. I watched what I ate. I incorporated a steady diet of pushups. Came back, weighed in at 201 again. I was ecstatic. I figured another month or so, with my new diet, and my return to running and I would be close to my goal weight again.

But the knee didn't cooperate. It wouldn't allow me to return to running and while I began swimming again, and definitely got into better shape (I could tell mostly because my clothes fit me better; I didn't get on the scale) I could tell things were not going great. Then I got the MRI and found out the meniscus repair had failed. I needed to have a partial knee replacement.

With my second surgery scheduled I needed another pre-op physical. My weight? 222.8. Ugh. I knew I was up again but I hated seeing the number.

But I am using this as my starting point. My rock bottom. Nearly 50 lbs more than I was just two years ago. But I lost 25 of it a few months ago with just a rigorous walking plan and watching my diet. I will do it again here. 10 days to go until the surgery. I will not leave that hospital at the same weight I am now. Like I am no longer wondering if my kee will eventually get better when it wasn't going to, and got the answer with the replacement surgery, I have the answer to why I feel fat: I am carrying 28% more weight than I was before.

Since I am chronicling this journey, I want to be as upfront as possible with all the facts so others can be inspired or simply root me on.

So, Day One. 222.8 lbs. Then 10 miles on the bike with a 2000 yard swim coming up later today. Snacks and other crap food I love are going out the window. I won't say I won't indulge in them again when I am back to running 70 miles a week but when you aren't burning off two pounds of fat a week JUST in the miles you are running alone, you can't be snacking.

Wish me luck!