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/ ***************************************************************************
Craig said: > I can now ride again Well done mate ! The human spirit triumphs again. Glad it has worked out well for you and wish you much joy of the regained mobility. Which hurts more - the knee or your butt ;-) Best Regards Paul Hayward, Auckland, New Zealand *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
On Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 6:48 AM, Paul Hayward <pdh_at_mmcl.co.nz> wrote: > > > Which hurts more - the knee or your butt ;-) > > The knee hurts the most. I'm actually looking forward to riding enough so that the butt hurts. :) Thanks, Paul. Craig *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Craig's stories can never be considered "boring". As far from that as possible. Am led by his story to relate an incident that pales in comparison to his medical issues. As I told Craig in a personal response earlier, he made my morning much less uncomfortable. At his request, I edit it for the wider PaddleWise membership -- and apologize for the length of the post. ___________ Thanks, Craig. An inspiring story. I'm sitting in a wing chair -- the only thing I can do in some comfort this morning -- doing my job as a telecommuter. Yesterday, my wife and I hosted a visiting French couple -- an old friend from Paris/Washington and her new boyfriend -- and took them out to Maryland's Eastern Shore where the ancient art of log canoe racing is practiced. We had secured two places on the chase boat for one of the canoes -- Edmee out of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (CBMM) in St. Michaels -- and drove out to Chestertown (a beautiful colonial era town on the Eastern Shore) yesterday morning; my son's position as crew aboard Edmee had allowed this enviable passage to see these ancient craft in action -- and up close and personal. A great honor. Log canoes are a bit more than they sound. Racing canoes are mostly "five log" canoes, made up by joining five 40' logs together and then cutting away everything that doesn't look like a boat. A mix of the indigenous people of the Chesapeake's practice of hollowing out a log to make a canoe and the European influence of "bigger is better", unencumbered by any concern for environmental issues. (There are always lots more trees!) (An interesting, short introductory article about racing log canoes is offered at http://www.coastalliving.com/travel/chesapeake-bay-log-canoe-racing-00400000047465/.) The excitement of manning a chase boat -- these unstable racing canoes have to be towed out to the race and back, and then followed carefully -- was eclipsed by a frantic, last minute and totally unrestricted request for crew for an undersupported new boat, "Mary Julia Hall" (MJH). "New" is new to the race circuit: MJH was built in 1894 -- no numerical misprint here. Instead of watching the Edmee race from the comfort of the CBMM's vintage crabbing boat, "Volunteer" -- an excitement greatly anticipated -- I was recruited to crew aboard the undercrewed MJH; my ancient and limited experience sailing on one-design race boats was more than enough to qualify as an MJH crewman -- and that, in itself, should have been sufficient warning. But recruited I was, leaving my new French friend on the chase boat at his insightfully better judgement. (The even wiser women folk had headed off to see the sights in Chestertown.) My introduction to MJH was boarding her -- and it should have been another warning sign. To get aboard, one climbs over the "easy chair" stern position -- a seat for the mainsail trimmer on a stern sprit (pronounced "sprite" for some illusive Eastern Shore reason) extended six feet abaft the stern, and then down the supports onto the hull itself. (These craft are inherently unstable: the article mentions that most of them have to be supported at the dock to avoid accidental capsizing while sitting in calm water with no sail raised, so side boarding is discouraged.) Well, I made it from the dock and half way down the stern sprits before losing foot presence and crashing into the "sprite" with my ribcage before ungracefully landing in the waist-deep water of the Chester River. My injury -- initially thought to be just having the wind knocked out of me -- grew to a suspected rib crack. (I described my injury to the skipper as only a bone bruise -- which appears now to have been an accurate self-diagnosis -- although by mid-race it certainly appeared to me to be a fracture: difficulty breathing and a lot of discomfort in two ribs. In good log canoe racing style, however, I refused to acknowledge my injury's extent, and continued to scramble up and down the "boards" and to bail out the questionable hull with a bad leak at the top of the centerboard trunk. There are no allowances for lost crew: if someone is lost overboard after the first warning cannon, the canoe must hove to and recover the crewman or be disqualified from the race. An injured crewman stays aboard and continues to function at his or her optimal level if the canoe is to remain in the race. Such was my injured status, and, with some absurdly perverse thoughts of actually be invited back to crew again in the future, I gutted it out on the boards as rail meat and self-adjusting balast. (Our new, inexperienced skipper and crew as much as guaranteed our finishing position at dead last in a field of nine; the advantage of having a lot of o! ther boa ts in front to find the turning marks was limited in that we could hardly see the other boats shortly after the start, so far back was our place. MJH may continue to be crew-deprived, but this sport is only a little bit about finishing first -- or even last. It's mostly all about keeping the few remaining racing log canoes alive and under sail, and the practice of trading off crewmen to support another canoe's chance to race is all in the game. It's really all about presrving a 150 year tradition of the Chesapeake Bay.) Obviously, from a medical standpoint, my story is a tiny, unmeasurable fracion of Craig's knee injury and evolution. I only write to thank him for a great story of an incredible medical journey, and to thank him for helping me get my sore ribs in perspective. At almost 67, I've now had my share of mini-medical miracles -- having an eighteen milimeter stent inserted into a coronary artery to correct a certainly fatal heart condition, and having orthoscopic surgery for other issues where major openings and scars would have been the norm twenty or even ten years ago. Craig presents his stories well, and there is nothing boring in any of them. (And just now I'm remembering the time I helped a jeans-clad gent I had met at a symposium move his kayak to the water. We had decided to go out together for a paddle; he seemed a little stiff for a young man, and it was only when he asked me if he could use the relative watertight security of my Valley Canoe Products Pintail's sealed after compartment to stow his leg prostheses that I realized his physical differences. He had promised his doctor to safeguard these new and improved appliances if allowed to attend the proceedings.) So everything in perspective -- even more my sore chest. Thanks for making my morning a lot easier, Craig, and thanks again for the report. Certainly hope you can aspire to beating ten and even twelve year old female cyclists in the near future! Joq *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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