1yr. on Crutches - twiisted and bent - Little help?

[Trebor]

I just discovered circular strength, flow training a week ago and this forum yesterday. And I'm hoping that some here can provide some guidence and potential directions for exploration.

Here's the story - sorry for length in advancd...

So, I'm sitting in a concert, got up to leave and knee won't unbend. When walking on it it feels like a water baloon. Doc looks at it and says it's a medial meniscus tear. I don't have insurance for surgery. Doc says rehab and strengthening will ge me by. A week into it my lower leg swells and is a bit purple. I wrap it tight and lay on back with feet in air. It gets me by.

Also a week into it the pain kicks in and goes off the charts. The muscles around knee involuntarily contract - and stay contracted the next year. Two weeks into it I get a knife spearing pain in my groin muscles.

Over next year Pain subsides, I start walking with a cane and a month later can hobble around without it. A week later the knee reswells and pain puts me in shock.

This time I have insurance. Go to knee doc I'd researched that worked on olympic atheletes. He takes one look and says, "That's one Pissed-off knee!" I tell him it's a meniscal tear. He says, "That aint no meniscal tear - they don't swell that bad or hurt that bad." He looks at X-rays and says, "Wow, I haven't seen a joint this deteriorated except in older people in third world countries." The joint has severe osteoporosis - in fact the bone is porus.

He says I have RSD. Then he drains the knee and this lemon creme pie comes out. No more fun and games - he starts giving commands with the word "stat" in them :)

Anyway, he starts messing with the fluid and cocking his head sideways. Finally he says.. you don't have RSD or infection. You've got Gout.

Insurance gives you 6 weeks of therapy. Therapist made up another problem and gave me another 6 weeks. Then sent me off. A year later they checked on the bone mass and I'd built most of it back through walking and lunges and such.

4 years later my opposite knee starts deteriorating. I start working hard on my stretching and therapy again and as I tune in more it becomes obvious that I never got the leg muscles completely relengthened and the compensations are now causing breakdowns all over the place.

In the last year I've tried everything from Egoscue, to ART to AIS to PNF to SMS on foam rolls. The muscles on the left leg that was held up for a year are impervious. And until they release - my hips and spine remain bent. Recently the combination of Foam rolling (and using softballs in my Psoas) with resistance stretching have started to make small gains. Very small.

I would love to get ideas and possible directions from members here on possible treatment options or combinations.

I'm just catching up on Scott's joint mobility stuff and have warrior wellness on the way.

Any ideas are welcome. I"ve become a rehab test pilot.

Oh, P.S.... The pain in the groin and swelling in the lower leg were blood clots! They recently did dopler radar on me and found the veins were so thick from scarring they couldn't even see though them. Apparently my body reabsorbed the clots instead of letting them go to my lungs or brain. So, lots of low leg swelling from scarred valves.

[JasonE]

That's a tough situation, but I'm glad the original knee situation has been more or less resolved. I've got a few thoughts on your current situation, but first some administrative stuff:

Per forum rules, please click "Profile" under the RMAX logo at the top of this page and enter your first and last name into the Signature box. Feel free to add a favorite quote or whatever. If you haven't done so yet, please go to the Welcome Mat and post and introduction there. Thanks! :)

From what you are saying, it sounds like you will need to find a good massage therapist with experience in sports rehab to help you achieve a full recovery. The best people I've had work on me have been very affordable and willing to get paid out of pocket. I hope you can find someone similar. Make sure they have their national certification if you are in the USA.

My experience with knee injuries, torn thigh and hip muscles and rehab has been that mobilizing the affected areas is the best way to prime them for release of excess tension. Monthly therapeutic massage working deep into the affected tissues will get further into some things than movement will be able to do at first, and your mobility practice will enhance the effectiveness of the treatment.

Assuming that your current issues are solely that of strength and muscle length imbalances, correcting the situation completely is certainly possible, perhaps more rapidly than you might expect! 8)

However, it is important to also consider your nutrition. A poor diet can aggravate conditions such as those you describe. A solid intake of protein, complex carbohydrates, plenty of water and a good number of vitamins and minerals should be core components of your daily intake.

Please post more more detailed information about your nutrition, general physical condition, work & activities, symptoms (location(s) of pain/discomfort, limitations/changes in your range of motion, etc.), and what you do weekly/daily to try and resolve these issues. Thanks!

[Trebor]

Okay Jason - I fixed the admin stuff... and ordered Warrior Wellness this morning.

Thanks for the time you took to reply - here's the details you asked for.

I sit a lot for work. I'm not that physically active right now - My right knee pain had gotten so severe that it the most I could walk was 3 minutes before serious inflamation set in. It's only been in the last few weeks that I'd upped my walking time to almost an hour 3-times a week after some resistance stretching did something I can't even explain.

Last week though I had another massive gout attack in the knee - so I'm back to the 3 minutes until some more of the crud gets out of the knee. But, my 2 weeks of freedom give me hope that the knee can recover. (oh, pain is medial on right knee - phys therapist found doctors were wrong about patella femoral syndrome - and that there was scar tissue on one of the medial ligaments - and that was because the external rotators were monsters pulling the rest of the structures out of wack.)Improvement started once I began with the stretches he showed to get this. He said that infareding the scar tissue and breaking it up may be necessary - or may not be. Personally - I believe that its my problems on the left side that are causing the muscles to go out of wack on the right side.)

So, let's see, bad diet, no excercise = 60lbs of extra weight. 5'8" 215lb. :(

My muscles, especially on the left leg that was held up for a year - are extremely resistant to any stretching or hands on work. I've had ART guys grinding into them while I actively stretched them - one said they probably never would lengthen. Recently, the resistance stretching stuff (Genius of flexibility) actually got them to start budging. (while I think the guys meridian/personality stuff is bogus - the stretching method seems to work)

I'm catching up here on Scott's approach and it looks like he'd say I've gone after the solution backwards by stretching in order to get joint ROM. - So, I'm going to start doing the joint exercises daily now but still stretch some in the evenings. (Or should I be doing WW exercises twice a day instead?)

Other stuff I've been doing are foam rolls and small soccer balls or soft balls to try and losen some of the muscles. These do work a bit but it's been a long road. The psoas up in my adomen is almost impossible to stretch - I use the balls to go after it. Therapist have gone after it (oh the joy! - but haven't been able to get it to release.) Sometimes it takes a static hold with a ball or foam roll for 10 minutes on a single part of the muscle on the left leg before it starts quivering and letting go. Weird.

There has been progress. People that have seen me walk 3 years ago say I move very well now - that I used to look like the hunch back of Notre Dame. But I'm still a gonner in 10 years if I don't slay these compensation dragons now.

I love higher protein diets - but have to be careful cause they set me up for some crippling gout attacks. Diet alone will not control the gout cause I'm missing some enzyme that breaks down uric acid - so even on a good gout diet it builds up and get me. Best solution I've found is a gallon of water a day to prevent attacks. Not always easy when on the road.

I thinik that is more than you asked for :)

Should I also be doing body flow stuff? The low knee bends would snap me - but a lot of the matt work where I don't have to get into low knee movements would probably cut loose a lot of tension and holding patterns??

Oh, I live in the So.Cal area. Orange County.

[JasonE]

Robert - Sorry about the delay in responding.

Couple of things:

1. Yes, I think you have a good chance of making some major improvements. For now, I recommend Warrior Wellness as your primary focus to regain overall mobility.

2. If you stretch at all, do it after your WW practice, or after a walk/workout. It is secondary, but may help. Based on my own experiences, I think you should look into PNF stretching. The best reference I've found so far is "Overcome Neck & Back Pain" by Kit Laughlin. Very user-friendly and it has suggestions for modifying stretches if needed. I first learned about PNF stretching when my chiropractor was helping to unlock my psoas muscle years ago, and it's a handy tool that I use when I'm feeling extra tightness. If the stretching method in "The Genius of Stretching" is working, keep trying that too, but only after you've warmed up with some WW.

3. My massage therapist introduced me to "Yamuna Bodyrolling" a few years ago. I haven't spent a lot of time on it, but the method is interesting and relates directly to your use of balls to get into certain tight spots. Check out www.yamunabodyrolling.com for info on their methods.

4. I believe cautious Body-Flow practice may assist you. I suggest that you select 2-4 movements that you feel would not overtax your knee and start with those. Do them after your WW and before any stretching. If you have Be Breathed, that would be excellent as well.

5. Continue to work with your health pros to tend that knee, but also look into professional therapeutic massage. A good massage therapist will be able to help release some of that deeper tension (though it might hurt at times) and also assist your circulation and elimination of the excess uric acid.

6. Last, consider getting a consultation with a nutritionist. Changing your diet is absolutely key to losing weight (with/without exercise), and can help with the gout even if it doesn't cure it. As for water intake, get a bunch of liter bottles, fill them frequently and keep them everywhere so it's always convenient. I keep one or two filled in my fridge at all times so I can just grab one on my way out the door. The more water, the better!