Brought to my Knees

A year before I turned 50, I went to see an orthopaedic consultant. My left knee had started playing up a year or so before, buckling without warning and generally keeping me awake at night with constant, nagging pain. Both knees were permanently swollen and I was having days where it was difficult to get around. 

 

I thought it would be a simple case of “washing out” some loose matter at the back of my left knee. I certainly wasn’t prepared for what I saw on the Xray. Most of the cartilege had worn away on the inner corners of both knees and it was clear that I was on my way to being bone-on-bone. Ouch! 

 

The Consultant explained that the position of my bones showed I have a congenital abnormality, which means I am unlikely to be able to have conventional knee replacements. 

 

“What now?” I asked him. 

He shrugged. 

“Come back and see me when you’re 60 and your needs have reduced,” he said. 

“My needs?” I repeated, stupefied. “What do you think I’m going to be doing at the age of 60? Sitting on the sofa knitting whilst watching daytime TV? Sod that – I want to be hiking, running after my grandkids, travelling the world…” 

 

The Consultant looked at me as if I was speaking a foreign language. The prognosis was grim – he sent me away with strong painkillers and the promise of being in a wheelchair by 60. In the meantime, he said, I shouldn’t walk uphill, downhill, lunge, squat, run… the list of “can’t” seemed endless. 

 

It took me a while to emerge from the gloom of my visit to the orthopaedic specialist. Over a year, in fact. After all, if the medically trained expert said I was irreparably broken then who was I to argue? I started to use a stick on the bad days and, since I couldn’t predict when a “bad day” would come, I unconsciously began to restrict my activities. 

 

About two years after my encounter with that Consultant, my husband and I went on a Juicing Retreat, run by Jason Vale in Portugal. For 7 days we ate (and drank!) nothing but freshly made fruit and vegetable juices. There were many of the available activities I couldn’t join in, but I went religiously to every Yoga class. 

 

At first, I had to ice my knees after every session and took ibuprofen before, just to get me through. Then, on the Wednesday, I realised I hadn’t taken any painkillers and, miraculously, it seemed at the time, I could fully straighten my legs for the first time in months! By the time I came home, I was pain free and significantly more mobile than when I arrived. 

 

Obviously, I don’t live on juice all the time! But I do follow an alkaline diet as far as possible, and practice Yoga most days. Have I remained pain free and mobile ever since? No. When I “fall off the wagon”, as I did recently, and stop regulating what I eat, my knees let me know, and believe me, pain free, working knees feel far better than bread and pasta tastes! Sometimes, my knees hurt even when I’m doing all I can to help myself. The problem I have is a mechanical one and I have no delusions that diet and exercise will “cure” me. However… 

 

My life has been very different to the one the consultant foresaw. For example, I fulfilled a long held ambition to walk through Bryce Canyon in Utah. It was tough, and I needed painkillers to reduce swelling and see me through. I walked at a snail’s pace in some areas. But I did it, and when I finally emerged at the top, I felt euphoric. 

 

I've even jumped off a mountain (that I had to walk up) in New Zealand with a man strapped to my back. Not what my dear orthopaedic consultant had in mind for my life post 50!