Initial thoughts - it's even more steeper than it looks. The run through the
trees to keep the shape of the ball.
My knees are beginning to hurt so I might have to take a longer route down to the
bottom which is a bit of a pain. Ah, it's flipping exhausting.
Aaaargh, ah!
So, yesterday I was doing some hill reps and halfway
through I heard a pop,
a small kind of noise in my knee and it kind of felt slightly
unsteady and I kept going for a second and then I was just unable to run.
So I walked home in agony and
I just thought, well,
I might have just strained something and overnight rest will be all right.
But today, 24 hours on,
although there was no swelling in my knee, um,
I'm unable to even walk more than about 50
meters. So I think it is potentially something a bit bigger than,
than just a minor strain.
Right.
So that's a complete full thickness cartilage
loss of the medial femoral
condyle. How do you spell that? F-e-m.
Okay, so.
I just got off the phone with him. Right, what did he say?
Well,
it's not great.
I've got quite a lot that needs fixing.
I've got a medial meniscal tear, um,
a grade two degenerative change of the retro patella and
a complete full thickness- a complete full thickness cartilage loss of
the medial femoral condyle,
which does sound like a remote train journey in the Scottish
Highlands performed by Michael Portillo. But Hey, um, yeah,
it's quite a lot. That is a lot. So, d'ya have a plan? Yeah.
So he says that in order to get me out of pain,
he is going to have to do a knee arthroscopy and do these other little bits
as well. So it'd be kind of two procedures in one. Um, and he said, he,
you know, we need to do it ASAP.
Cause obviously I can't walk more than about 250 metres. Yeah. Um,
but you know,
the concerning thing that he talked about was actually about running and about what I
might, may or may not be able to do in the future.
How do you feel about that? Well,
his words were that my running may be impaired and, um,
he was kind of, he was kind of,
you might be able to do some running,
but we'll just see how it goes.
But there was a lot of ifs and buts in there and he was,
he was unsure and he talked about hard surfaces and his concerns about me
running on hard surfaces, but no matter what, he was saying
you just need to get this done ASAP in order that you can,
you know, just basically walk around again because for the last four weeks,
I've not been able to even, you know,
I've not been able to send the baby to nursery because it's about 250 meters is
the most I can walk. So, um,
there's a plan. I'm going to have the arthroscopy and the sort of bit on the
side that I don't really understand and
that'll get me out of pain and we'll just see where we go from there. Yeah.
Take it one day at a time.
Hello, mate! Yeah,
I've just had a call with the surgeon and he's given me my prognosis,
but to be honest, I'm not completely sure what it means.
Do you have a moment to kind of break it down for me in complete layman's terms, if you could.
Hey mate. Um, yes, I can explain what's going on for you.
So the cartilage, which are buffers,
there's one at the end of your thigh, and one at the top of your shin,
um, both of these areas have been damaged. Um,
you have some changes to the cartilage, um, at the end of your thigh,
which means that they're going to go in and,
and try and repair that along with trying to repair the one called your
meniscus, which is at the top of your shin.
But the key thing for you to understand, there are some changes in your knee that
are probably related to your age and how much you've run. Um,
and we need to get you prepared and get you nice and strong. So, um,
listen, I'll be with you all the way and help you get back onto the road.
I'll speak to you soon, mate. Bye.
One thing I've actually been really surprised about is I've been able to get on my bike and
not been in any pain at all.
It just shows how cross training can actually really work quite well.
Even when you have quite a bad knee injury,
I can't walk 200 metres if I'm on foot,
but on a bike,
I've been able to get out every day and it's been pretty much pain-free so here's
to cross training.
Okay so Manni has given me a bunch of exercises to do that can build up strength
in both my knees.
Cause obviously this one is doing a lot of extra work at the moment.
This one's called the hip flection and abduction.
Now it might look
really easy, but the trick is you've got to keep your back against the wall.
It's not actually as easy as it looks, especially when you do 12 of them.
So today's the day of the surgery. I got up,
I had some breakfast, um, and some water.
And now I'm nil by mouth until I go in for the procedure.
So I'm going to go into the hospital, um,
this afternoon and then hopefully fingers crossed
I'll be coming out later tonight.
I just kind of feel at the moment going in,
I've got really two different aims.
I feel coming into this because originally I was kind of gutted.
Oh my gosh. Um, when he told me on the phone,
we don't know what this is going to mean for your running.
Does this mean that you're going to be able to compete again?
Does this mean you're going to be able to run in any form of races again?
Or does this mean that I'll just be able to, you know,
just go to the park and go on a 5k run myself. Um,
and then we were also talking about the type of ground,
the conditions that I'll be able to run on,
maybe I'll have to stay off pavements and do more trails.
But then over the few weeks that I've been kind of taking this
in, uh, in the kind of 4 and a half weeks since it happened,
I've come to realize that actually this operation now is actually something a
little bit bigger.
It's not actually just about my running - it is actually really day to day
stuff. And the surgeon said to me on the phone, he said,
you know, what we need to sort out with you, Rick first is actually,
you need to get some kind of quality of life back into how you're working day to
day and how you're doing things day to day. Because at the moment,
you're not able to take the baby to nursery. You're not able to,
if someone said, do you want to go on a walk?
You've got to get on your bike to go on a walk around the park.
You're not able to walk more than to the tube or to the railway station.
And even then it's a bit of a push and
it's made me realize that actually what I'm
doing today is actually trying to get myself A) out of
pain, which I've been in for, for a relatively long time.
And B) just kind of get back to some normal living where I haven't got to think
about whether or not I can just do basic things and how I do basic things and
how long it takes me to do that.
And I don't want to over-dramatise this because I know in the,
in the long and short of things, it's, it's, it's not a,
it's not a massive deal,
but it does feel like the main reason for this
has in some ways changed a bit. And I'm still really hopeful,
really hopeful that I will be able to do some form of running. Um,
hopefully get back up into, into racing again. But, um,
I don't want to go all Andy Murray here, but that was what he said, wasn't it,
Andy Murray. He said, you know, first thing I want to get my health back.
And then secondly, you want to, um, secondly, you know,
you look to do what you can do after that, but at the moment, I'm just,
I'm just really relieved in some ways that the time has come,
that I can actually get myself out of pain.
Well, the last time I was in a gown like this,
I think I was in a spa, but not in the spa now
unfortunately. God, I wish I was in the spa.
So the physios just been. Brought me some crutches,
had my blood pressure taken and been weighed and it's time to go down.
Oh my gosh, I cannot wait for this to be over.
My heart is going like the clappers.
Okay, let's do this.
So I've just come out of recovery,
feel a bit groggy, but I think it was just because there was a tube in my throat.
Um, I think the operation was a success,
but it turns out that they had to do quite a bit more work than they thought. I was
asleep for about an hour and 45, but
I think that's because they had to do some more work on the bones and some
more microfractures because of the,
the part of the bone that didn't have any cartilage, uh,
in order to try and get the cartilage to regrow, uh,
just feel a bit light headed.
I think it went okay, so, just waiting for the nurse to come in now.
So welcome to my bedroom.
I think he's found it more challenging than he initially expected
since he's been back.
You can see the holes where they went in, nicely shaven
leg, done a good job on the shaving. I just feel like
I've been getting really frustrated though, and I've been kind of bad company,
the last kind of 24 hours.