I popped in to see Dr. Wilson yesterday so he could have a look at my knee. I just wanted to be sure nothing was seriously wrong with it as I was having extreme pain on the right hand side of the joint. Dena and I are starting training this weekend for our 1/2 Marathon in Pasadena and I guess I just wanted a blessing.
He said I have Chondromalacia. This is basically rough cartilage under the knee cap, it's either hereditary or has arose from age/menopause and aggravated by 45 days of relative sedentary life imposed by post surgical recovery. I'm not convinced that is what I really have, but regardless, whatever it is, it is not something that requires surgery so that's good.
Here's the prescription:
Wear soft cushioned shoes with no hard sole and take Glucosamine chondroitin and MSM or whatever it is. He mentioned that there are mixed reviews on these supplements but he admits that they help some people tremendously and some others not so much. My mom takes this supplement for her knee and says it really helps. Oh, there we go! I get to blame my mom! It is genetics....
I'm not allowed any weekend warrior type exercise. I must exercise with consistency, equally all the time, at least 4 times a week. As for the 1/2 marathon if I really, really want to I can run but he would prefer if I speed walk it. That seems fine with me as running hurts and I'm sure that is how I've pissed off the knee to begin with, running with our dog, Gepetto. He also said that low impact exercise is important and wants to see 50% of half marathon training to be on low impact machine, aka elliptical or stair climber or bike, etc.
Couple other tidbits I've learned today - 4 Aleve equals one Celebrex so take 2 Aleve in morning, 2 at night when it flares up. Don’t take for any more than 4 days in a row. Celebrex is an expensive anti-inflammatory that insurance companies don't like to pay for anymore.
5 pounds of weight loss equals 15 pounds of pressure off knee.
