[at-l] aches and pains

[cleek@csc.smsu.edu (Billie H. Cleek)]

"Sucking it up" does not mean that one should ignore one's body at the
risk of permanent damage. If you pull down 17+ mile days while your knee
is screaming for you stop then you aren't sucking it up; you've gone way
past sucking it up and ventured into the territory of lunacy. If it's cold
I suck it up. If I'm hungry I suck it up. If I have hypothermia I cease
sucking it up. If I'm starving I cease sucking it up. Get the idea? 

Perhaps this will illustrate my point: When I am sick I do not go to the
doctor unless I am REALLY sick and my body isn't getting better on its
own. I don't get immunizations as preventive measure. My body is equipped
to deal with the majority of ailments which will be inflicted upon it IF I
use common sense and listen to what my body has to say.


I would venture that you didn't learn what "sucking it up means in the
long run". You did, however, learn what ignoring your body means in the
long run. Note: masking symptoms will have the same effect

Regards,
Cleek

On Fri, 5 Jan 2001, jjs Soles wrote:

> Lurker chiming in here.
> 
> I slightly injured my knee this past June playing volleyball.  I didn't even know I injured it at the time.  The following weekend I went on a 40 mile hike here in Michigan and my knee started hurting.  I have never had knee trouble before in connection with hiking.  I was planning a thru-hike of the John Muir Trail the end of July so I kept up my conditioning hikes and treadmill work (I did between six and twelve miles a day on the treadmill for conditioning when I could not get out and hike).  The knee kept giving me trouble so I went to my doctor.  He could not find any apparent injury based on examination and xrays, so he prescribed vitamin I at 600 mg per dose every 4-6 hours as needed.  I went on the JMT hike as planned and brought the vitamin I along with me.  Shortly after starting the hike the knee pain became constant and was bad enough to impact my sleep.  It didn't help that we were doing 17+ mile days in the High Sierra.  By the end of the hike I was using my !
 Le!
>  kis more as crutches than hiking poles, but I did finish the trail.  When I returned home I immediately went back to my doctor and he scheduled an MRI and an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon.  The MRI showed a tear in the medial meniscus and I had surgery on December 22 to remove over 1/3 of my medial meniscus as well as smooth-out the ball of my thigh bone which was damaged from excessive wear.  I just got off of crutches today and my surgeon has said that I cannot hike or do any impact activity for another 6-12 weeks.  His prognosis for returning to the trail is good, but not excellent.
> 
> Lessons learned include "sucking it up" really sucks in the long run.  In retrospect, I should have seen the surgeon before the JMT hike and I should have not done the hike.  So much for hindsight.  My future hiking plans will involve more reasonable time/distance plans and paying attention to my body's signals.
> 
> Back to "Lurk Mode".
> 
> Ten Gallon
> 
> >>> Ben Wright <silas_wright@yahoo.com> 01/05 10:12 AM >>>
> I know of one really strong hiker in 2000 who had
> to bushwhack to the road from the trail in the SNP
> because he ignored his knee troubles for too long
> by "sucking it up" and probably let a minor problem
> become a major problem that ended his hike. Vitamin
> I daily is meant to cut down on inflammation that
> occurs daily and might help prevent a bigger problem.
> Neither vitamin I nor "sucking it up" should be used
> to ignore or mask a problem that needs to be examined.
> 
> Turbo Turtle
> 
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