This is going to be a long one. I am so mad, so mad. I know that putting 50 to 75 miles a week is not ideal. I know that running every day (no rest day) is not that good for your buddy. I do not say that. Someone else did. BUT, I like running. I like running a lot. To me, doing all that stuff is just fun.
Picture this: 5:30 AM on a Sunday winter morning. You open the front door of your house and realize that it is cold, so cold that you go back inside and get another piece of clothing. You go back outside and know that does not matter how many layers of clothing you wear, it is going to be cold. Being miserable for this next 15 mins, it is just part of the game. It is still dark and you have 10 miles to destroy. You put on your headphones, start you favorite tune, and GO. I really like all of that.
So, after 5 years of running and training for different half and full marathons, I got injured. The funny (well, not so funny) and ironic thing is that I had multiple goals for 2021.
Run the Utah Valley Marathon.
Run the St George Marathon.
Train all year for the 60K ultra race in Zion in 2022.
Run every day at least 3 miles for 365 days. (No rest day).
Run at least 2500 miles in 2021.
Meniscus tear.
Completed 2 of 6.
Everything started after the Utah Valley Marathon on June 2021. I ran a really good marathon. I even had one of my co-workers run it with me. It was a lot of fun. The Utah Valley Marathon is more than 80% downhill. They tell you to train for it by doing a lot of downhill work, which I did.
So, after completing my marathon everything was as expected. I was tired. I had some knee and muscle pain. But nothing that I had not experience before. Instead of resting for that following week. I had a goal to meet. Running every day for 365 days, no rest. So, the very first day, I ran 3 miles. For the following two weeks, I ran only 3 miles every day. I was feeling tired but nothing that will make me stop running.
On June 27th, 22 days after the marathon on June 5th, both my right and left knees started to hurt a lot. This was run 178. I remember it clearly because I added a bunch of emojis to Strava. I felt a burning sensation on both knees right in the middle of the knee like it was splitting them in half. By July 1st, my left knee had stopped hurting but my right knee was getting worse. Run 182, 3.01 miles, was really slow. I named my run in Strava: "my knee hurts a LOT, run.
After July 1st, I reduced my daily miles to one mile. By July 13, I had stopped running completely. At this point, I was limping with a lot of pain in my right knee to the point that my knee had gotten inflamed. This is where the adventure really begins.
By mid July, I decided to go to a doctor. At this point, going from the garage to inside of the house was a painful ordeal. As a thinking person, I wanted to talk to an Orthopedic. I wanted to get as much information as possible about this pain, how to treat it, how to make it better so I could go back to running ASAP. Do you know the definition of NAIVE. Well, I am the definition of naive. I am the personification of that word. You will see why later.
Let's call my doctor, Doctor 1. My first doctor is an Orthopedic with many years of experience. He is part of a clinic with 4 other Orthopedic physicians with different specialties. Doctor 1 told me, without any type of test, that I was suffering from arthritis in my right knee. He literally touched my knee, moved my leg up and down, left and right. And with that, he gave me the diagnostic. Arthritis! When I asked him how he knew that it was arthritis and I explained that I had been running for 5 years without any pain, he told me and I quote. "It is typical for men your age to have this wear and tear". WTF? He gave me some pain medication and anti-inflammatory and send me on my way. 🤬
Two weeks later, I went back. Yes, I didn't go to see another doctor. I went back to the same one. At this point, the knee had gotten worse. The pain medication and anti-inflammatory medicine had done nothing. I hate pills, but I took these two every day. I asked the doctor if there was a way to know for sure it was arthritis. It was getting worse even thought I had not done any physical activity. I mean, I was barely walking. He told me it was not needed. Just give it some time.
I asked the doc if they had an x-ray machine in the clinic. I told him I wanted him to be 100% because this pain did not feel like arthritis. He said no. I asked again. He said, it was not needed. I told him to do it since I had insurance. I also told him that I did not care if I had to pay out of pocket. I wanted to know more about this pain. By now, you are probably saying, you have to trust your doctor. And I do. But, something felt different. Arthritis, really?
Anyway, he finally did it. I got an x-ray. A few mins later, he comes into the room and tells me that I do not have arthritis. Both of my knees, from an x-ray perspective look healthy. However, there is pain in my right knee and now a little bit of swelling. So something is going on.
I asked again if there was something else that he could use to look at the knee a little more. Of course, he said. Not needed. This is probably a tendon or ligament that I have tweaked. Just time, rest, pain medication, and more anti-inflammatory would do the trick. WHAAAAAAATTTTTTTT?
As a person who is not a doctor, I went home with the idea that well, I have to follow my doctor's advice. So, the new plan was to let a cortisone shot do its work, take Tylenol and Advil. As a type 1 diabetic, I told my doctor that my glucose level was going to be out of control. But, that was the plan. For 2 weeks, my knee did not get better, the pain got worse, and my glucose level were above 250. Injecting insulin did absolutely nothing. In the two weeks, I started reading more about knee injuries general stuff about running injuries. I found that a common injury is meniscus tears. I find out that the best (maybe the only way) to find out is to do a MRI.
At the two weeks mark, I went back to the doctor. The doctor did not want to do a MRI. He said and I quote: "it is a waste of time and money". The pain you are describing does not feel or look like a meniscus tear. Retrospectively, what in the world was I doing still talking to this dude? So, I did what a thinking person would do. Look for a new doctor. No. I made an appointment with another doctor but in the same clinic. 🤦
Doctor #2
With doctor #2, things started a little better. After the first conversation, the doctor told me that we were going to do a MRI. The doctor said, this is the only way to really know for sure if I have a meniscus tear or even something worse. Something worse? He told me that it could be a ACL, MCL, problems that are normally associated with people who run. Oh Shit, this dude makes more sense.
MRI is done. I have a meniscus tear. Surgery is the only way to fix your knee! Doctors words. I do not like surgeries, in fact, to that day, I had never had a surgery before. But, I like running, the doctor is telling me that it is an easy surgery, minimum complications if any, RECOVERY TIME JUST A FEW WEEKS. Oh yes please. Let's do this.
We scheduled the surgery for August 8th, only two months after the marathon. Pretty good, right?