[at-l] knees or bees or whatever

[Art Cloutman]

I don't know but I experienced the same sensation.  I had to give up 
my morning runs because of knee pain.  I walked instead for a few 
years.  When I retired I picked up a job at Gunstock Mountain as a 
ski instructor.  I was on my feet for 6-10 hours per day and had 
trouble walking to my car at the end of the day.  But, I had been 
planning to do a thru hike for over 46 years.  I didn't let the knee 
pain stop me.  The mountain closed for the season on March 30, 2004. 
On April 1st, I set off for Springer Mt. to begin my hike on April 
4th.  The pain in my knees gradually decreased (replaced by pain in 
the bottom of both feet.)  With zero days as needed I strolled my way 
to Katahdin finishing on October 26th.  There were only 3 other 
people on the mountain that glorious day.  I know I get carried away 
but my point is my knee pain went away.




>So, I'm wondering why my right knee is feeling better.  First, I'm 
>56, well okay 57 for all intents and purposes, and have never really 
>suffered any serious kind of joint injury or physical problem while 
>having run off and on for thirty years.  We have a treadmill that I 
>use for my running when the weather isn't conducive to getting out 
>to the sandy trails in our local metropark but it (the treadmill, 
>not the metropark) was out of commission for a few weeks recently 
>and so I wasn't doing any running.  Concurrently, I was doing a 
>remodel of one of our bathrooms and so was making lots of trips up 
>and down the stairs plus lots of work on my knees laying tile, etc. 
>During that time my right knee started bothering me to quite a 
>degree.  Not really sharp pain but pretty much constant aching to 
>the point where occasionally it was keeping me awake at night.  I 
>figured some sort of injury, maybe a torn tendon or cartilidge or 
>whatever.  My eventual hope of doing a thruhike after
>  retirement was starting to look pretty remote.  Then our treadmill 
>got fixed and so I decided to get back on the horse and give it a 
>try.  First walking and then running again after a few days.  Well, 
>after just three days of about 40 minutes per, my knee was starting 
>to feel better.  It's been about three weeks now and the pain is 
>completely gone, not even twinges.
>   
>   So what think you?  I know lots of you have experience in knee 
>related maladies.  My wife suggested maybe arthritis but that would 
>require admitting to a certain age and I won't do that.  Me, I'm a 
>medical ignoramus who does his best to avoid doctors unless dragged 
>kicking and screaming, so I'd prefer to think that clean living has 
>fixed me, but that doesn't seem too realistic.  Any ideas?
>   
>   Kent Gardam
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-- 

Life is Good!!!
Art Cloutman