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Hello, heyjoe415
Yours was one one of clearest, most detailed chronicles of life with deteriorating knees I've read so far. It echoes in so many ways my own experience. I, too, was a long-distance runner (not as many marathons as you!). My running days came to an about 20 years ago when I had my right knee replaced. I'd been doing fairly well ever since, until about a year ago when my left knee began to give me achy moments. I thought, 'Uh-oh, time for TKR #2.'
But my orthopedist, studying my X-ray, said, 'Well, Ray, your knee is bad, but I'd advise we take a more conservative approach, at least for as long as we can.' We started shots, first steroid, then gel, and I've been doing pretty well ever since. Shots work, but, as I've been told, not for everyone. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones for whom shots do work.
Off the topic. heyjoe415, do you miss runningas much as I do? After all these years, and now withPN to boot, I still get nostalic when I see someone ticking off the miles on one of our local trails as I lumber by in my Jeep. ::sigh:: 🙂
Best wishes,
Ray (@ray666)
Replies to "Hello, heyjoe415 Yours was one one of clearest, most detailed chronicles of life with deteriorating knees..."
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Hi Ray, and thank you for your kind words.
The fact that your surgeon isn't rushing into the second replacement means you've found a good Dr. My rule of thumb, well in retrospect, is to wait until daily activities become disrupted by the pain - sleeping or climbing a flight of stairs for example, and it can't be fixed with cortisone or another remedy. Then bone is likely rubbing on bone, and a replacement is, for now, the best way to go.
As for running, yes I do miss it quite a lot. Ironically, with the new knees, I'm able to do a HIIT/spin session 5x/week and that feels absolutely great. My knees have never felt better.
What I miss most about running are the people. During the winter, we'd have a weekly Sunday 10 mile run from a friend's home. We'd train together for races and marathons, we'd run these events together. I don't get that from spinning, although I have made some new friends at classes. I did manage to reach my #1 goal of running a few marathons under three hours. So mostly I'm grateful I had the experiences and friends that I did.
Thanks again Ray, and all the best to you.
Joe