Think life overkilled me

[The_Game_Cat]

Hi all,

 

Was hoping for some advice. I used to be quite fit and at the level I desired. I found my passion in fitness and generally being physically active. I was never one to focus on the aesthetics rather as much as generally trying to be the strongest, fastest etc. version of myself. I really was in the best shape ever. It also got me to completely stop binge drinking, or drinking at all for the most part. Whilst this made me happy and gave me a sense of purpose, overall I was unhappy (still am) with other areas of my life e.g. my profession etc. and fitness was my escape. Problem was, and I blame only myself and my poor physiology (not really, just me), I overdid it. I ended up doing 2 - 2 30 hours of activity a day. This was in particular strenuous on my legs as I would do "leg day" twice a week, play squash almost every day, run on most days and weekends i'd hike long trails or play paintball.

 

The thing that pushed me off the edge was I started doing weighted squats, and did so improperly. After a few weeks I found my knees to be swollen. There was no initial pain so I didn't think it was too serious (regret always comes too late). To be honest, looking back I had sort of an unhealthy obsession with my physical activity and that aided in me not realizing that I have actually accumulated a serious injury. This was mostly due to low self esteem and dissatisfaction in other areas of my life, where the fitness aspect gave me a sense of escape and achievement I suppose. I'd wait a week or 2 for the swelling to subdue, stopped squatting, but then went back to other activities only to injure it again. My knees would ache if I stood for longer than 5 min, have a grindy/clicking sensation when I bend and in general prevented me from bending below knee height. Long story short, I ended up going to the doc - and now little more than a year of waiting, rehab with biokineticists, multiple XRAYS and MRI scans, I finally had an arthroscopy done (they check inside your knee with a tiny camera for damage.)

 

While the MRI scans showed nothing, and the previous Ortho ended up diagnosing me with arthritis, patellar tracking disorder etc. for lack of figuring out what's wrong - it turns out I have severe cartilage damage i both knees.. more the left than right. So after more than a year of not being able to do any of my passions, committing to rehab exercises only and receiving glimmers of hope when the MRI didn't show any damage (as my greatest fear was cartilage damage) - all my hopes were rather crushed when I received the news. 

 

There's little that can be done. As I still have most of my cartilage, but I have multiple fissures in it. So it's simply a matter of adjusting my life and hoping research allows regrowth of cartilage in the next couple of years.. which looks promising though sad that I'm at that stage.

 

This isn't a sympathy post. I realize this is rather gloomy. I was also waiting until I was "normal" again to become active on this forum and partake in all the fitness activities, but looks like that won't be happening. I do NOT plan to give up, ever. I plan to keep doing my rehab, adjust every aspect of my life to be beneficial to my recovery and try to not let it hold me back whilst always remembering to listen to my body - which is something I never did.

 

I was hoping anyone has advice for me? Such as what hobbies I could look at doing (used to do squash, MMA, hiking, running, gym, paintball) or whether anyone else is in a similar boat and how they are dealing with it?

[Zahirah]

I have a friend of mine who has always been athletic since her high school days, but she has had her ACL reconstructed three times (the same knee).  She has basically no cartilage left in that knee.  However, cycling doesn't seem to impact it the way other sports do.  You may also try swimming, great full body workout and low impact on the knees as well.