No More NYC Marathon
Posted by Admin on October 13, 2009 in Training
I found out today that a recent knee condition now requires a corrective procedure. Here’s a bit of history to put things into perspective.
In April 2006, a guy slid into my knee by accident during a football game. I knew immediately that something was wrong, but after consulting with my physician colleagues at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, I was told I had a strained medial collateral ligament (MCL) and that physical rehabilitation would make me better. After a fair amount of time, I did recover a bit, but I knew things weren’t right. Shortly after the NYC Marathon in November 2007, after having had a poor experience, I decided to go outside of the Kessler world and saw an independent guy. He requested an MRI and found that in fact, I had a small tear in the medial meniscus. The type of tear however did not require any removal tissue. As most people probably know, there is no blood flow and no nerve endings in the meniscus or cartilage, so the tissue does not regenerate. In January 2008, I chose the option of having the tissue sutured since doing so would enable me to retain the tissue and potentially be better off in the twilight years. That seemed to work such that I was able to do the Ironman in Brazil, and at least another dozen triathlons thereafter, not to mention many, many miles of running and participation on multiple sports teams.
Two weeks ago, during a soccer game, I re-injured the knee. I don’t recall any specific movement or incident, but that night, I felt a bit stiff. The next day, I was a little achy, and the third day, there was some swelling, albeit to a small degree. I immediately sought medical advice and saw one of the physicians within Dr. Norman Scott’s practice in NYC. He was the team physician for the NY Jets and is widely known to be a top guy in his field. The actual doctor I saw, as it turns out, is/was a triathlete and whose brother does the Ironman distance events. Naturally, we had an instant rapport and he seemed to understand my physical stresses and motivations. Lucky for me, I kept the old MRI and had him review the films. He confirmed the previous tear and decided that it would be worth it to re-examine the tissue post-repair and post-re-injury, so I had another MRI last week. I met with him again this morning and he stated that it looks like I’ve re-torn the same meniscul area. He added that it’s quite common (something between 30% and 40%) for folks to incur a re-injury when it is repaired vs. a tissue removal procedure. His recommendation therefore is for me to have another arthroscopic procedure. I have agreed.
I found the MRI report interesting. Check this out: “There is blunting of the free margin of the posterior horn and body of the medial meniscus, consistent with post operative changes related to prior partial meniscectomy. There is a complex tear of the body and posterior horn of the medical meniscus, with a predominant horizontal component contacting the inferior articular surface, and a small radial component at the free margin of the posterior horn. There is a 5mm filling defect at the inferior margin of the peripheral body or meniscal fragment. Furthermore, there is a curvilinear filling defect, medial to the PCL at the level of the intercondylar notch suspicious for a displaced meniscal fragment from the posterior horn tear.” Translation: “The knee was damaged before. It’s been damaged again.”
I’m not sure when I’ll have it done but it will definitely be before the Thanksgiving holidays. It’s a quick outpatient procedure and it will be performed at Lenox Hill Hospital on the Upper East Side. I just need to figure out who will be my nurse!
So that’s the story. It’s unfortunate that I won’t be able to run in the NYC Marathon after the many months of preparation leading up to it, and especially given the great personal performances in a variety of run distances this season, but I’m most concerned with my long term health, and following this procedure, I will be sure to measure any potential risks to sports or triathon-oriented activities. Fortunately for me, this was a sports-related injury and not one that was created or exacerbated by triathlon training/racing.
To be perfectly honest, I’m not as devastated as I imagined I’d be with the potential bad news when this first came about. Mostly, it’s because I feel like I’ve put this into perspective within the grand scheme of life; that is, I’m still healthy, I still have a job, I still have a great community of people around me, etc. Okay, so I can’t run 26.2 miles in a competitive fashion (trust me, my will power could get me to run it slowly even with this condition!), but on the flip side, I can now drink as much wine as I want without any guilt or concern about how it will affect training. So, with that sentiment, Cheers!
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