Knee update

In my last post, I said that my Doctor thought I had a "probable lateral meniscus tear" in my left knee,

I had the MRI last week and got the MRI results today and the news looks good, kind of. Meaning no lateral meniscus tear that is visible, he thinks I may have some loose stuff floating and/or my knee went through a bit too much wobbling or something that got it inflamed. He did note that I do have a tear in my medial meniscus but it appeared small and since I don't have pain there he wasn't worried (he also knows that I don't have a lot left either as he did my last knee surgery). 

We discussed options and he felt my best option was as follows (which I agreed to do).  

A cortisone shot today and he asked me to not run long or often over the next 2 weeks, he is hoping that with some rest that the knee will come back to pain free. We discussed how the cortisone shot could mask my pain which could potentially cause additional damage if I got carried away. So he is hopeful that with some rest, I can then run all of the TCM events with ideally no pain, so my plan is to run when I can, walk to recover, repeat and just work my to the finish.

We discussed that there could still be a tear on the lateral side or loose particles and if so the cortisone shot wouldn't help long term or even at TCM and that I should continue to look for signs of catching or the sharp unexpected pain when I resume running and if it happens we will need to discuss things further.  Last, he was not optimistic that my knee will ever tolerate uneven surfaces (i.e. trails), I am still optimistic that if I strengthen the muscles around my knee I have a chance (my winter project) but first things first. 

He also gave me my MRI scores for my knee (0 - Perfect, 4 - Not good (basically bone on bone). 

• Medial meniscus for cushioning 2 to 3, stability - not rated, previously he said a 3 to 4 as all that remains is the outer rim
• Lateral Meniscus - 1 to 2 for cushioning, from what I have read it doesn't help as much with stability, so this seems good
• Articular cartilage - 2 to 3, not great but he said fairly normal for someone my age. So all in all good, hopefully the cortisone helps me get back to normal. 

So with this all in mind, stay tuned for my TCM race weekend reports for how things work out. Here what I hope to report:

Update

I have not been blogging much as I just haven't had alignment on wanting to blog and my running so here is a quick update until I get the posts out.

In process are posts for the following:

• Grandmas 2016 - my 16th Grandmas, my worse ever marathon time and my first marathon with my youngest daughter. All in all we enjoyed ourselves but neither of us had the day we expected.
• Afton 25k - my first trail run in a couple of years and potentially my last. Lack of knee stability resulted in my inability to run downhills or even run much.
• Marquette Marathon - Michigan completed but not as originally planned as I hobbled through it, my daughter ran the 1/2 marathon plus an extra 5 miles to get in a long run for TCM and my wife ran the 5k. A fun weekend.
• My hobble was caused by a "probable lateral meniscus tear" in my left knee, so I will have the following to look forward to - MRI to confirm, possible surgery but prior to that a cortisone shot to help me get through Twin Cities
• Twin Cities Marathon Weekend - running the marathon with my youngest daughter, the 10k with my wife, the 5k with my oldest daughter and watching my granddaughter running the Toddler Trot. Oh did I mention when I finish it will be my 50th marathon.
• Thoughts on not running marathons
• Thoughts and plans to try to return to trails and ultras
• FANS 12 hour in 2017
• Grandmas 2017 - my 17th Grandmas to be run on June 17th
• My plans for completing all 50 states (13 complete)
• Bucket list marathons

So in the coming weeks I will look to catch up on my planned posts by at least doing short versions of each race I have done this year and then I will hopefully keep going on the other posts. 

Keep running and never ever take it for granted.....................