Knee Update: Fate & Hope

Back in November I got an email via the contact form on this site.  Katherine reached out to she let me know that she had EDS-H (Ehlers Danlos Syndrome Hypermobility type) too and was thinking about taking up triathlon… She wanted me to know that hypermobility was anything but benign, and she encouraged me to manage my EDS as seriously as I manage my CMT.

Fate?

At that time absolutely nothing was going on in my life with regard to hypermobility.  Bad knees were a fact of my life, something I grew up with, something I am always mindful of… My elbow injury in 2007 was from a fall and led me to the diagnosis of EDS, but I had an AMAZING arm surgeon who put this very bendy Humpty Dumpty back together again and hadn’t really paid the EDS diagnosis much attention since then…

At the start of 2013 I was tweeting with my friend Rob, who I had met on Twitter in 2009 connecting with him because his daughter has hypermobility. I have kept in touch with Rob over the years, and at the start of the year agreed to do the British 10k in aid of the Hypermobility Syndrome Association in the UK. 

Fate?

When I decided to do the British 10k it was partly because I took on board what Katherine had said – take the condition a bit more seriously.  It was also because I was taking a lot more joy from running.  And it just so happened that the date just slotted into my calendar.

When I had the results of the knee MRI, I reached out to Katherine.  It turns out that she has a high patella too, and is managing the condition with her physiotherapists.  She told me that I just should get a copy of the book on hypermobility by Dr Brad Tinkle, a geneticist with a specialisty in connective tissue disorders. Apparently Dr Tinkle says that those with hypermobility can continue running for as long as they are able.  Dr Tinkle practices near Chicago. And it also happens that I will be in Chicago for work in May.

Fate?

I am a believer that we craft our own destiny – that we open ourselves to opportunities.  Perhaps because I am open (through blogging, tweeting, and Facebook) I have met two people who I can now turn to for support and guidance.

I also believe we create our own paths, we create the right mix of ingredients for our own success.  For me and being active, this has meant putting together the right team.  Part of my team is Ellis Taylor at Tatami Health (I started seeing Ellis in the fall, although I had swum with him for a few years already). And part of my team is James Dunne of Kinetic Revolution. 

Ellis has asked me to consider if the bone bruise was a direct result from a bike tumble I took in December.  James and I were chatting at the track on Saturday, wondering if it was loading or trauma that caused the bone bruise.  I told James about Ellis’ theory. James asked me if I had any other photos of the MRI results besides the one I published last week.

I found one.  And then I found another, of the bruising after my December topple.

A patch of bruising (not the bit I focused on but closer to my knee cap). Seemingly the same spot as the bruise on the MRI. Could it be that the bike fall is the root cause of the bone bruise? And that the swelling – that the swelling is just random swelling and adjustment to my training load as I had thought it was (see my post from early January for more of my thoughts on adjustment).

Hope?

It would be a whole lot better if this knee bruise was not caused by loading from running, but from the bike topple.  I suspect it would indicate a different criticality to the advice to “stop running.”—it could be that the “stop running” turns into “stop running now to let the bone bruise clear up, and you will need to stop running forever at some stage in the future.” But the forever may not be now.

Hope, or false hope?

Clearly I am still in the early stages of discovering and learning about my injury and taking advice from doctors.  I have a follow up sports physician appointment to discuss the MRI and rehabilitative options on Friday.  And I *think* I know where the paper is with the knee doctor recommendations I got from my elbow surgeon in 2007, just in case I ever needed to see someone if my knees acted up – someone who would understand both CMT and EDS.  That doctor will be the second opinion I seek.

Right now, if there is one thing that I have on top of a lot of information to process and a deep-seeded need to map out a way forward, it is hope.

Hope.

Hope. And a doctor’s appointment on Friday.