A knee knows

I tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in my left knee skiing at Mt. Wachusett in central Mass. on January 18, 2007. This is a common injury to weekend warriors like myself, so I thought others might like to know what happens once you've done something unfortunate like this to your body. Maybe you've injured yourself too, and feel like the game's over. However, you can return to your sport -- you just need to stay focused and do the work.

Here's where it started...



Monday, December 22, 2008

No more pain in knee, as earlier

The pain I was having playing tennis has completely stopped. I suspect that it was just a matter of getting used to serving again after a month, more or less, of not playing much. The left leg for a right-handed hitter, is the main source of power in a tennis serve. It's the leg you mostly drive from in launching upward to hit; it's also the leg you land on to complete the stroke. Since that initial experience a month ago or so, I haven't had any pain at all. But I need to step up my work to regain strength in the hamstring of my involved leg. I still have about half the strength of my other leg.

If you have any good exercises that focus especially on the hamstring, I'd love to hear about them.

Link to clip shot last year -- excellent results!


Thursday, November 13, 2008

Recent pain not a big concern

The indoor tennis season began a few weeks ago, which means I'm playing now only once a week instead of three or more times. Not sure if that's a factor of not, but a week ago Monday, in warming up to play in the gym, I did a couple of sets of squats on the rack with two 45 lb. plates, so not that heavy, certainly not close to pre-injury load. Later, on the court, I noticed that landing on my left leg following a serve was pretty uncomfortable. I was feeling pain under my kneecap, so I'd sort of shake it off and keep going, but it limited my leg drive on the serve, and it did affect my mobility, especially moving to my right.

The only other time I have felt any pain since surgery was one occasion working outside where I was squatting down low with knees fully flexed, and it just felt like too much pressure on the joint. This has been the only pain at all I've ever felt since returning to athletic activity late last winter, so it gave me some concern. There was no swelling, and no appreciable pain doing ordinary things. In general, the knee feels loose and reasonably strong, but I need to get stronger. Ski season is coming up and I need to feel confident out there that it won't fail. Again, the hamstring autograft has kind of been an issue. I'm still significantly weaker on the left side and I need that strength to prevent another hyperextension injury.

I played tennis again this last Monday (skipped the squats this time) and did notice a little of the same pain initially, but it went away. So, here's what I've concluded. I'm 51 now (ridiculous, I know) and I'm aware that after about 40, you start losing muscle mass if you're not actually doing strength training. I haven't been doing that kind of exercise consistently for the last 6 months so I'm realizing now that if I don't get on the stick, the strength I need to keep from getting injured again won't be there and I'll start having more symptoms like the pain I've been feeling recently on the tennis court. So screw that -- it's back on the program. The squats I did before playing that one night just fatigued the joint enough, I think, that it wasn't operating smoothly and was probably a little imbalanced.

The fact is, every day is a struggle against a variety of forces that want to slow you down, dull your edge, and drain your willingness to keep fighting. My friend and neighbor Craig can be counted on, in any conversation, to say, "It's always something." It's how you respond that matters.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Final word? Not quite...

So last year, the year of pain, I had the knee reconstructed and a SLAP II repair of my right (playing) shoulder. It's now 17 months since the knee procedure, and 10 months since my shoulder and I couldn't be happier with the results of both. I can ski and play tennis without a brace and with full mobility and strength. The shoulder, in particular, is better than it has been in years. Kudos to Dr. Peters and John Palloff, my PT.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Charles Christianson knee story

Saw this story in the Boston Globe this morning about a US skier, Charles Christianson, who tore three out of four ligaments in one knee in a crash, but has since recovered and is back at the top of his game.

Not sure how long the article will be available at that link. And too bad the online version didn't include the photo of Christianson taking a gate at a very dynamic angle. Here are some clips of him racing strung together. I don't know if these are before or after the injury. Awesome racer, for sure.