Very bad knees...any ideas?

wolfsvixen
wolfsvixen Posts: 11
in Fitness and Exercise
I've hit a plateau and it's driving me...well insane :) I've got horrible awful knees (bone on bone no cartilage to speak of in both) - so running is out, squats are out, I do swim a couple time a week, I do alternating days with 65 minutes treadmill, 65 biking, and 65 on an elliptical 5 days a week to keep myself from getting bored, I do light weights every other day. Since it's summer I've been doing a 5-8 mile hike on weekends (mountain hiking off grid 20lb pack). Too much more than that and I'm in so much pain that I can't function much less think :) Got up to 13,500 feet out of 14,065 on Mt. Bierstadt here in Colorado over the weekend. A very painful accomplishment, but one I'm pretty proud of! The final rocky ascent was just too much right now. So it stays on the bucket list.

I'm running out of things I can do without hurting myself and I was hoping someone might have some ideas for other gentle, non "hard" impact exercises. Calories are kept at 1200 on my 2 rest days and I do eat my extras except for hiking days because there isn't any way in the world I can eat up to an extra 2000-3000 calories that MFP says I've "earned" for that day. "Killer Hike" days I hit around 1800-2000, but again it's only 1 day a week that I have that amount of "earned" calories. I'm stuck at 214 and it's not moving a bit. I thought it could be that I'm making muscle and wiping out fat but it's been 6 weeks with no progress.

Thanks All!

Replies

  • MikeyM1982
    MikeyM1982 Posts: 47 Member
    I am recovering from torn ACL/LCL/Meniscus Cartilage and attaching muscle.

    I have been told that there will be a complete lack of strength in the ligaments, so therefore have to compensate by strengthening the surrounding muscle and tendons. This ranges from squats to lunges with weights. And in order to strengthen the tendons and stabiliser muscles, stand on one leg with eyes shut, and swap. Do this for as long as possible without falling over. Then attempt one-legged squats, even if its lowering yourself an inch at a time for 10 reps, then the next day try a little further.

    All of the above should strengthen your knees, making up for ligament and cartilage damage.
  • LoweTeam
    LoweTeam Posts: 1 Member
    I would look into knee replacement...I was right where you are this time last year. I final gave up and relented to the pain not doing anything for myself physically. Wanted to wait as long as I could but finally decided to go forward with the total knee replacement. Long road but I am pain free with a new lease on life. Biking every day and gong on long walks with my wife and two dogs...something I haven't done in over 6 years. My pain started getting real bad when I turned 40. 46 now and so looking forward to my new active life. I had 12 bone spurs with bone on bone and tons of arthritis. Finally got sick of hiding it from everyone and trying to push through the pain constantly...eventually the pain won and I said enough is enough and went through with the surgery. Sounds like you are still very active, I would be careful because knees are like used tires and the tread is wearing thin in your case...the more you push on with the activities the more tread you use. There is no magic answer, I would stick to biking and swimming until you can get your knees fixed. I client of mine at the age of 65 got both of his replaced and he now can ski all winter long...his story encouraged me to get mine done.

    One other, early on (at your stage now) I got some relief with Synvisc shots (1 treatment = one shot a week for 3 weeks). It helped me out for about 4 years (can't take more than every 6 months.
  • agdyl
    agdyl Posts: 246 Member
    Biking and yoga is the combo that keeps my knees functioning. I've had 5 knee surgeries - both ACLs and various meniscus repairs/cleanups, and am mostly bone on bone on the medial sides.

    The other part of it for me was a surprise. My doctors always told me that the swelling/pain I got in my knees was just to be expected after all the trauma/resulting arthritis that they've been through and I never argued it. They recommended anti-inflammatories, which I can't handle - causes even more pain in my stomach than I had in my knees so there was no point. So I just managed it with yoga and biking. But while experimenting with my diet, I realized that after not eating gluten for a couple months, my knees felt surprisingly great. And then I had a beer with dinner one night and the next day - visibly swollen and in pain again. Which lasted about 3 days and then they felt fine. Repeated the same thing a couple weeks later - one non gluten free meal = 3 days or so of pain and swelling in my joints. Until that happened I had never even looked into gluten sensitivity causing joint pain, but it's not that uncommon, as it turns out. Not that my knees are 100% perfect - I can still overdo things and make them hurt, but the pain and inflammation is probably 95% better than it was when I was eating gluten.

    I've since had the blood test done to confirm that I have the antibodies from a gluten sensitivity. I never had a doctor recommend it until I asked - there seemed to be a perfectly logical reason for my knee pain. But changing my diet has sure made a difference for me. It might be worth looking into.
  • wolfsvixen
    wolfsvixen Posts: 11
    Thanks everyone :)

    Alas, knee replacements aren't an option yet, my insurance says I'm too young (only 40) and their "standards of care" require you to be older - which I think is pretty stupid. Spent a small fortune seeing outside doctors and they've all said the same thing. I've tried the shots - that was an absolute failure ended up in the hospital turns out I'm allergic to something in the injections (tried 3 different kinds and they all had the same result) I've had 3 lateral releases as my kneecaps track diagonally instead of tracking normally. Saw my ortho surgeon 5 months ago, he looked at me and told me to "just suck it up". Guess I'll just keep on doing what I can in the mean time and try not to mentally beat myself up so much! I can only do what I can do - am currently working on getting ready for the next ski season. Got tired of doing the usual and decided to take a few chances now and then - being careful is always first on the to do list on ski days.

    Again thanks for all the wonderful replies!
  • agdyl
    agdyl Posts: 246 Member
    Same deal with knee replacements for me - A few years ago I was told I need them on both knees, but I'm only 39 now. So that's a ways off and I've figured out how to manage it well enough that I plan on holding out for a long time now - they feel so much better now than they did about 2-3 years ago.

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