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That Darn Knee

The good news is, my ACL graft that was done 7/1998 has held strong. I was worried about that. I asked him how long he thinks that rebuilt ACL will last, and he said “it should last you into your grave as long as you don’t injure yourself again.”

The bad news is this: I have significant arthritis and cartilage degeneration on the outside (lateral side) of my left knee. This is due to the motorcycle accident and injury I sustained way back in 1997 (the reason I had reconstructive surgery back then). It will progress throughout my life, because that’s the way arthritis and cartilage degeneration works. So I have a “bone on bone” issue… and when I work my knee hard, it irritates the joint and causes swelling, lack of range of motion, and pain.

My surgeon loves CrossFit and in fact he does it as well. However, he explained to me that “The workouts they post on the website are designed with people with healthy joints in mind. You have a bad knee, so you have to scale back and use substitution or you are going to accelerate your knee problems.” He wants me not to run at all anymore (Anything with pounding/impact causes bone to hit bone = bad) and instead substitute rowing… he recommends biking (I love to mtn bike, so this is good), and he recommends to use less weight when weight lifting, and more reps. He stated the obvious, but I hadn’t thought about it much “your knee is not designed to carry an extra several hundred pounds”… but at the same time, this guy is the team doctor for the Colorado Avalanche and they all lift weights to get strong, so again he emphasized that weight lifting is good, and it’s good to keep doing it to keep the joint strong, but to scale back, be careful and keep a log of what causes pain and swelling and not to do those things. The femur and tibia bones are also beginning to “fissure” (crack) in that area. It is possible that long term, I may need a total knee replacement because there is no such procedure to replace cartilage, and if they bone fissures continue I’ll have some big time bone problems anyway.

So there you have it. Back off on the workouts, don’t run, keep a log of when I have pain and what caused it, and maybe someday get a whole new knee. And I am on prescription anti-inflammatories for two months, after which time I talk with Dr. Parker again. He asked me what sports I like to do and I explained that CrossFit is sort of like a sport for me, which he understood, but he said "you won't want to continue to try to compete with people with healthy knees or you will regret it." Oh well. I just want to be fit.

Oh, the exact technical wording on my MRI report is:

1. Full thickness cartilage loss along the posterior weight bearing surface of the lateral tibial plateau with mild subchondrial bone edema.
2. Areas of full thickness chondrial fissuring along the patella.
3. Moderate to large joint effusion with synovitis

Overhead Front Back Squat

Throw, Climb, Run

Rest Day Thoughts

CFT

Craig's House

"Garrett"

Three rounds for time of:
75 Squats
25 Ring handstand push-ups
25 L-pull-ups

Post time to comments.

Thruster Pullup

LINDA

Tabata This

Tabata Row + Tabata Something Else

CHIPPER

HSP KBS GHDSU

The Games

You can track scores here: http://scores2010.crossfit.com/

Jacob is 17th after the first two WODs. 130 men competing, they are taking 30 from that sectional. One more WOD tomorrow.

His Air Force time posted on our blog was 6:27, he did it in 8:02 at the games. 6:27 would have placed him 8th on that one (out of 130 dudes!). But I know the strategy, don't show em' too much too early! :-) Go Jacob Go!!!!

Snatch Max Effort

Rest Day

This beach awaits me.  I'll be there in exactly 5 months. 

Enjoy rest day fellas. 

Row Clean Thruster

Wall Ball L Pull UP

Life truly is precious... live it up.

Something shocking happened this morning:

This guy Brett that works for me (for a long time, we're close friends too) comes in to the office around 8:30 with the phone in his ear, breathing very fast, shaking, and looking literally light green in the face. I pull him into my office and shut the door and ask him what happened and he gasps "I don't know what to do! I don't know what to do! My mom just died! My mom just died!!...." So I immediately grab my jacket and keys, and him and say "let's get out of here....." and drove him to his parent's house. It was hard to know what to say during those next 15 minutes, he was very panicked and grief stricken. They were very close. They had just talked the night before, and had a family birthday party 3 nights ago. She watches their kids several times a week, they love their grandma.

His wife took their little girls over the grandma's house for Tuesday babysitting (a weekly thing) and she found Brett's mom dead in her bed. His dad had gotten up earlier and went to the gym so he probably figured she was asleep and not to wake her. More likely, she was already gone.

She was only 60 years old. No known health problems besides obesity (she was big), inactivity (didn't exercise) and a history of thyroid problems (been taking medicine for this decades). OK, so she did have health problems. But no disease or current "illness"... nothing that gave an indication of eminent sudden death.

When we arrived at the house there was a fire truck and an ambulance and all these people milling around. I gave Brett some encouragement (best I could) and then he got out and slowly walked across the yard to where the medical and fire guys were. Made me think about Jacob. I'm sure you've been on plenty of calls like that Jacob. That would be a strange thing to have to deal with as part of your job. Well that and you also work in an ER! I can't imagine what you've seen. I'm sure you've learned to respect life in profound ways.

She was a very kind woman, totally selfless, a great mother, a super nice cheerful lady. I really feel for Brett and his family right now. He's a good dude.

There aren't that many things that can kill you instantly. Heart Attack, stroke, apnea, aneurhysm (sp?).

The one takeaway from this for me is to encourage my parents in their health and to plead with them to have their hearts scanned/examined. If you catch these things before it's too late you can usually do something about it. I had my heart scanned last year (after my boss had a quadruple bypass) just because they reccomend men over 35 and women over 40 to do that... it was only $150 and came out clean as a whistle. Often heart disease starts when you are quite young, especially for those genetically predisposed to it.

10x2 Squats

I'm interpretting this as:

1st set
rest 60 sec
2nd set
rest 60 sec, etc.
til 10th set

Sweet Potatoes

DUDES -

I've listened to a few of Robb Wolf's "The Paleolithic Solution" podcasts and they are very good. Combined with Dr. Sear's talks on the Journal one can hardly not be convinced that diet plays the primary role in our health.

One specific thing I wanted to share with you guys (besides go listen to all of what Sears says in the Journal series and listen to Wolf too!) is that RW consistently recommends sweet potatoes for post WOD nutrition. Not solely, but include them. The reasoning is that yams do an excellent job of restoring liver glycogen. Also, they are nothing like regular potatoes (which are on the BAD list!) as far as their glycemic load. The Glycemic Index of yams is 37!! That is a very good score. This means that they do not flood your blood with sugar causing your pancreas to blast out a ton of insulin. A baked potato, on the other hand, has the same sugar load/effect on your body as 3/4 of a cup of sugar.

YAY FOR YAMS!!

Stephen

Deadlift 5-5-5-5-5

Heavy Sumo Inverted

Rest Day - HFDG

KELLY

Griff

800m forward 400m backward 800m forward 400m backward

Big Boy Thrusters, MU's, Run

Five rounds for time of: 155 pound Thruster, 5 reps 5 Muscle-ups Run 400m