Bit of a knees up!

I went to visit my general practice doctor yesterday to talk about my sore knee. I love my GP, he’s seen me through some challenging health problems in the last 5 years including (unusually for a “fat person”) a mega active thyroid gland and he knows me well enough now to realise I need detail and I want to talk options before he hands over a pill packet.

The Doc was all smiles when I explained my knee started hurt at the 20 mile run stage in my marathon training just before Christmas; he told me he’d started to run just before Christmas to train for a local half-marathon and had had to stop because he’d similar pain in his knee!

After an examination he grabbed a model knee from his shelf and gave me a quick biology lesson. It seems I’ve probably torn the meniscus, a wedge shaped cartilage ring found on both the inside and outside of the knee between the femur (thigh bone) and tibia (shin bone). The menisci act as shock absorbers in the knee and provide stability to the joint. This is why my knee hurts or gives way when I put any weight through the joint.

I’m going to need an arthroscopy to fix the meniscus. The good news is, it is a fairly simple day procedure and should only require a local anaesthesia. The surgeon should be able to repair the tear with stitches or tacks.

The less good news is I could be on crutches for a few weeks and I’ll have limited mobility.
Mobility and using exercise as a distraction from eating has been key to achieving my weight loss to date and I’m afraid that sitting around for 6-weeks “resting” will mean I’ll burn less but get bored and eat more. I’m clearly going to need a plan to get me through this.

Some early forming ideas:

(1) Break my food intake down into 6 small meals so I can graze more, vegetable sticks, fruit pieces etc.

(2) Make sure there are no snack type foods available in the house. I won’t be able to drive to get more.

(3) Take up an activity that keeps my hands active – knitting, patchwork

(4) Look to see if there anybody produced a DVD for an armchair workout. I know my Granny used to do a mobility class where all the oldies (her term) sat in chairs and exercised to music. Do you know of one?

(5) Talk to the rehabilitation physio and my personal trainer and see what they come up with. Swimming would probably be OK once the wound has healed but as I won’t be able to drive it will be difficult to get there.