[Paddlewise] Knee Replacement - may be boring :P

I know that there are quite a few Paddlewisers who took up paddling after
their knees gave out and they could no longer run or bicycle. I had an
industrial injury 20 years ago that reduced the flexibility of my left knee
to less than 60 degrees total. In addition to making it difficult to walk it
stopped my bicycling because it takes about 110 degrees of flex to get a
pedal through a rotation. This all happened while I was in my 40s and had
pretty much given up mountain and rock climbing so I gave all my gear to my
brother-in-law. I kept my Galibier climbing boots; I couldn't bear to give
them up and still use them in the winter snow..

And I kept my Peugeot PX10 bicycle. This had been, in the 1970s, one of the
best racing bikes in the world with sew-up tires and special lightweight
construction. It weighed 21 pounds all-up and, against all advice, I even
took it on an 800 mile trip through Europe in 1972; surprisingly enough I
only lost one sew-up tire (the rear one) caused by wear due to the weight of
the panniers carrying my tent and other gear.

I'm telling you all this to let you know that I considered myself a cyclist.
I did 100 mile days, cycled in a club, and did everything I could on a bike
(before mountain biking came around). So when my knee problem eliminated
cycling I had to find other things to do. Probably much like you.

Over the years I got more-or-less used to the knee and learned to maneuver
relatively well. Unless I was getting around the house I only needed a cane
most of the time... and crutches some of the time. But last spring, after a
particularly grueling trip to the Seattle Zoo with my kids and grandkids I
bought an electric wheelchair because it was just too much. I didn't want to
give up going to amusement parks and zoos but I simply could not spent 5 to
7 hours on crutches.

The wheelchair, oddly enough, was liberating not confining. I didn't need to
use it around the house, after all. Because its top speed was 6mph I found
that I could accompany the kids on their bikes up to the playpark and over
to the free BMX track that Moses Lake offers kids. I liked the fact that it
was electric and quiet and charging was cheap due to our low electric rates
(thanks to two hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River). But once the kids
became competent on their bikes - which only took a few weeks - I found that
I couldn't keep up at  6mph. They could ride circles around me.

They DID ride circles around me.

Having 8-year-old girls ride circles around you on their pink Barbie bikes
is, to say the least, annoying.

When I had been injured originally I was told that a knee replacement would
not fix my flexibility problems due to ligament and tendon damage. I was
also told that I had a good meniscus (the paddling between the upper and
lower leg bones in the knee). I had been careful to keep any further damage
to that knee to a minimum through early use of walking aids (canes and
crutches) so I was confident that I still had meniscus in that knee after 20
years.

However I finally listened to my wife who had been nagging me to check to
see if there was any new medical improvements that might help my walking and
talked to my doctor. X-rays that day showed - to my surprise - that there
was virtually no meniscus left in my injured knee but that my right knee
(the good one) was fine.  When they sent me to an orthopedic surgeon I was
further told that they were pretty sure that I could get a lot more movement
in my knee with a full replacement. I specifically asked if it would be
possible to ride a bicycle again and they told me that they could see no
reason why not.

That convinced me. I still have a PX10 to ride. I was warned, however, that
because I had such limited movement for such a long period of time it might
take a lot of physical therapy - long and painful physical therapy - to get
enough flexibility in that knee to allow me to ride a bike again. It would
probably be up to me and how much I was willing to push through the pain and
gain some motion.

On June 1, 2010 I had my left knee replaced. I was home on the afternoon of
June 3rd. I began therapy the next week. I don't want to minimize the
difficulties in recovering from this surgery. Normal recovery is 6 to 8
weeks and for many people taking that amount of time off work would be
prohibitive. I was fortunate in having full Social Security plus being in a
line of work where I could do a lot of what I needed to do remotely from my
living room. In fact several of my clients told me that they didn't see why
they had to pay me since I seldom changed out of my Spongebob jammies. But I
was also warned that the recovery time was for a normal patient who may have
had bad knees but didn't have any previous history of motion problems. My
recovery would be entirely different and that I was not to gauge my
performance on that of anyone else.

Recovery of flexibility was not fast for me. I began with 90 degrees but by
the time I got into physical therapy that had gone back to 70 degrees and we
had to work hard to get it back up to 90. My doctor prescribed a knee motion
machine for me to use 6 hours a day in 1 or 2 hour periods. I found that
this machine helped me enormously and began to gain 1 or 2 degrees of flex
with every visit to my therapist (3 times a week).

I am now six weeks into my recovery. About a week ago my wife found my old
racing spin trainer and put her mountain bike onto it out on the porch where
I could pedal and watch the boats going by. I found that I could just barely
get a rotation if I used only my heel on the pedal (and no shoes). I had her
take a picture of me on the bike to show my therapist. In the meantime my
walking had progressed from a walker (seriously!) through crutches to a cane
within about 3 weeks. Once I could pedal I found that I could start to walk
unassisted around the house.

Yesterday we dismounted her mountain bike from the spin trainer and I took
it out on the street and rode it up and down the street using both feet to
pedal. Then I rode it around the block. It hurt but it worked. Yesterday
afternoon we drove about 60 miles away where I bought a 2002 Trek 4500
mountain bike from a cute girl whose dad had given her his - which was too
big for her. Last night I rode that bike about a mile around the
neighborhood.

After 20 years of not being able to ride a bike at all, I can now ride
again. What I want to do is ride on an old railroad grade that covers about
60 miles in Idaho down from Lookout Pass through one of the richest silver
mining areas in the country, into logging country and along the shores of
Lake Coeur d'Alene. Since this is mostly downhill on a 3% grade I don't see
why I can't do it.

If you've had to stop cycling because of knee problems but still would like
to do recreational cycling you should see your doctor and find out whether a
full replacement would help. My medicare along with my coverage through my
wife's work at a local school district has covered all costs so far.

I can tell you that riding around on that new bike last night made me feel
like a kid again. In fact, I went across the street and talked the little
8-year-old girl into going for a ride with me.

I beat her!!! Oh yeah!!!


Craig Jungers
Moses Lake, WA
www.nwkayaking.net
***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed
here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire
responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author.
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************