[at-l] busted knee

[spiriteagle99 at hotmail.com (Jim and/or Ginny Owen)]

Michelle Ray
>
>Hi--I'm new to this list and I have a question: I was recently diagnosed
>with a torn meniscus (cartilage in the knee).  This is supposedly a pretty
>common sports injury (I got it falling with a full pack while fording a
>creek) and I was wondering if any of you had experience with this sort of
>injury and/or have advice from a hiker's perspective on how to deal with it
>(I have an orthopedic Dr. but would like to hear from the hiker community
>because hiker advice will probably be wiser?plus you guys don't charge a
>co-pay).   Thanks in advance...
>

Michelle -
I suspect you wouldn't be asking if it wasn't really bothering you - so i'll 
make the wild assumption that it hurts to walk.  Been there, done that.

I tore the meniscus in my right knee on June 28.  The orthocutter fixed it 
on August 28.  By Sept 28, I was managing to hike 5 miles on it.  By October 
28, I was up to 12 mpd - and by Nov 28 I was back down to 5-7 mpd but not 
because of the knee - I broke a couple ribs (among other things).

Today was 8.5 miles - next week will be more - and in 134 days, I'll be at 
the Mejican border and headed for Canada on the CDT (well - "our" version of 
the CDT).

If you're gonna do any serious hiking, get it fixed.  Orthoscopic surgery 
isn't painless, nor is it an "instant cure" but it IS effective.

Finally - a wild guess - you wouldn't by any chance be the same Michelle Ray 
who was a Trail Angel in Grants, NM for a number of years, would you?

Walk softly - and watch out for those stream fords,
Jim


http://www.spiriteaglehome.com/