Getting Old Sucks !

[ForrestGump]

Ouch @marco . Glad it wasn't worse. That's gotta be scary. Breck has been nice. LOTS of snow the last few nights. Got to make a couple of sweet trips down the bowls before the 13,000 ft elevation at the top of the Imperial Lift got to me. After having pneumonia last month, may not have been the best decision to make this trip. Altitude sickness is brutal!

[rok]

I had a partial tear of the MCL coming off the chairlift in a tangle with my wife (at Telluride too!) exactly one year ago. Don't even remember it now - 0 pain left. LOTS of ice.

But yeah, to be repetitive, you start to feel the other side of 50: what happens is, it gives you all that time, in retrospect, to have gotten hurt lots of times!...

Right now I'm enjoying a painless, injury-less period, after having come off two wrecked rotator cuffs, uncounted broken ribs, two smashed collarbones, four herniated discs, etc., all over the course of the last 20 years. I kind of measure the passage of time by these periods!

[Marco]

@Brady & @rok - After my last surgery in late 2010 (complete shoulder rebuild) rehabbing my MCL is going to seem easy. My shoulder took 1 year, with PT twice a week for 7 months, and rehabbing on my own 2 hours a day for 9 months. Although I can say the way my knee feels right now, it is hard to imagine it being better in 3 months. Brady- Grab Scot on come on down to ski this summer. Water is a little cool until mid to late June. If you want, come to our tournament the 2nd weekend in July.

 

@ShaneH -Thanks, I was pretty bummed for most of yesterday when I was sure it was my ACL. That would have ruined my summer. My ortho said I was the only patient he's ever had who was actually excited to hear he tore an MCL. Next time you get a hankerin to ski in Colorado, hit me up. I can set you uphere in Telluride pretty easy, and we have some great skiing here, and the number of bars per capita is one of the highest in the state!.

[Brady]

@Marco It's a date. @ShaneH get your ass out a little bit further west and I will show you all that Utah has to offer.

[A_B]

@Shaneh and @Marco, just don't get out of @Brady 's truck about 20 miles out of town to check his tires or something...

[SkiJay]

@igkya It doesn't heal. Essentially, the cartilage behind the kneecap wears out, then it's gone. You can inject lubrication behind the kneecap every three months or get partial or full knee replacements. The doc said water skiing isn't too bad so long as I ski "tall." So sking tall and well stacked is good for your knees as well as your back and ball count.

 

Apparently 20+ years of hard mogul skiing was about as smart as playing with the mercury out of old thermometers ... who knew?!

[A_B]

This sounds like what I have. Doc said it was just arthritis under the knee cap.

Right now, it is sometimes ok going up stairs, and other times, it has that mid bend collapse.

I think it could be why I would break forward for no reason last summer.

[SkiJay]

@AB Symptoms are pain on stairs (down worse than up), kneeling, jumping down off of something. Running is not recommended, and lunges are definitely off the menu.

 

When I told Karen Eade, my trainer, that my knees were sore and what the doc told me she said, "Do NOT do any of the (lunge-type) exercises I gave you last session. I might as well have kicked you in the knees and saved time."

[igkya]

@skijay would this lubrication be hyaluronic acid injections? I've been using Synvisc with some success, but only with the regular Synvisc (3 injections) and not the single dose Synvisc-one. What do you use and what kind of success have you had?

[SkiJay]

@igkya I'm learning from you here. Thanks for sharing. The doc told me that injections are an option, but didn't go into detail. I'm still at the stage where I have to come to grips with being older than dirt.

 

How long can you go between injections?

[Brady]

@SkiJay, aren't you getting simple cortizone injections with a nice pain killer injected as well? That is the only kind of injections I have ever received. My shoulder and knee feel great for about 4 months after my injections. Cortizone for me is a true wonder drug. @igkya curious as to the other injections as well

[SkiJay]

@Brady In North America, popular thinking is that Cortisone has a degenerative affect on tendons. In Australia, they shoot cortisone like taking an Advil. It has worked wonders for me in the past, but I don't want to make a habit of it.

[igkya]

@skijay @brady, I agree with skijay on the cortisone, though I need this along with the Synvisc, which is the lubrication, causes no harm to the knee joint, but is not a pain killer. U can get Synvisc injections every 6 months if needed, but they may last up to year before you need another one. I have no experience with any other HA injections.

[Ed_Obermeier]

"...aren't you getting simple cortizone injections with a nice pain killer injected as well? That is the only kind of injections I have ever received. My shoulder and knee feel great for about 4 months after my injections. Cortizone for me is a true wonder drug."

 

My best ski bud is also my family doctor. I've had him give me cortisone shots in my bad (right) knee twice over the past few years. Neither lasted more than a couple of weeks. Glad it works for you all, for me it's not that great an option. He's not too impressed with Synvisc either.

[Brady]

@Ed Obermeier I am sorry they are not working for you. The doc who injects me is the team doc for the U of U Football team. I will ask him what exactly he injects into me. I am surprised you are not getting relief!

Maybe @SkiJay has made you into a Voodoo doll and is jabbing your joints with a big pin.

[SkiJay]

@igkya Six months to a year sounds not too bad. I'll have to look into trying it.