Guess it’s time for another update. Last Monday should have been MRI day, but the appointment had to be rescheduled to Friday due to some technical issues with the machine. A bit frustrating, but what’s another 4 days when you’ve been injured for going on 8 weeks?
Long story short, Friday’s scan took just 20 minutes, so by 7am I was heading home a few dollars out of pocket, and with a CD containing 167 images of my right knee. Cheaper than race photos, that’s for sure. Naturally I was soon browsing through the images on my computer, quickly realised I didn’t really know what I was looking for, so closed the program and got busy at work instead.
Just a few hours later, however, the Radiologist’s report was available for collection, and not surprisingly (based on how the knee had been feeling since mid-December) contained the following information:
Medial meniscus: There is a linear signal hyperintensity seen within posterior horn of the medial meniscus and contacts the inferior articular surface and represents a tear. Mild reactive fibrovascular change are seen along medial tibial plateau.
So, basically a meniscus tear. Just what I expected to be honest. The pain and discomfort has been real for a couple of months, and although things have definitely improved, the medial side still doesn’t feel quite right. Ironically, I was able to walk/run quite successfully last week, with a decent enough session on Thursday of 1:00 walk/2:00 minute run where I covered 4.7 miles in about 41 minutes. Not world record pace for sure, but the run portions kinda felt like my old self and with no discomfort to speak of.
Follow-up appointment with the orthopedic doctor isn’t until 2/20/19, so I’ve got just over a week to mull things over and keep making progress with the physical therapy exercises.
Here’s how the week panned out:
- Mon – 2 mile walk/1 mile jog
- Tue – 3 mile walk|jog/1 mile run
- Wed – 4.1 mile walk/jog
- Thu – 4.7 mile walk/jog
- Fri – 2 mile walk/1 mile jog
- Sat – 5.1 mile walk/jog
- Sun – 6 mile walk/jog
- Total – 26 miles running/4 miles walking
What next?
Well, despite the tear diagnosis, the actual act of running is improving. Admittedly, I’m not able to run any significant distance right now, but the absence of pain on my short run segments is somewhat reassuring. Confidence is probably the biggest limiter – knowing the meniscus is torn and will likely never fully heal, I’m kind of scared of pushing too hard, too far, too soon. I’m also not sure if racing will be possible, and if it is, will I be limited to shorter events rather than my favored Ultra events. So many questions, with none of them having a definitive answer. Main thing is to stay positive and keep taking things one day at a time, one mile at a time.