Half a lifetime ago, aged 16, I was doing a lot of fell running. I ran for the county, I ran for school, I ran to save time walking the family dog so that I could still ride my pony before school. I was running about 35 miles a week on average. I cycled to work and back (about a mile each way)...
Then disaster struck. Whilst racing I slipped, landing awkwardly, and then struggling to walk nevermind complete my race. I was taken to hospital with a very swollen painful knee. It turned out I had ruptured a cruciate and a lateral ligament, and badly sprained the rest. I was operated on in fairly short order, put on crutches and told to go home a few days later. Within a week the joint was infected and required flushing, restitching and strong antibiotics. About 4 months later I finally came off crutches, and went straight into A levels. Other things took over and it was probably a decade before I started to exercise regularly again (on the basis that riding horses doesn't really count as exercise to me)...
My brain still thinks I should be able to run, sadly my body disagrees. I can, however, cycle a respectable distance pretty comfortably.
Strangely enough it's everything else that hurts, with plantar fasciitis, and a calf muscle problem, and a strange thing with a nerve in my foot all making it sore to run more than a couple of miles however much I train. My knee is pain free though! But it does make horrible noises - like a cheese grater grating something hard, or like 2 stones being scraped together, or something... It is loud enough that it is audible to someone following me up stairs. It is enough to make the chiropractor squeamish. She says to not interfere with the knee if it's not painful, and the GP isn't interested as it's not stopping me from leading a 'normal' life. But surely it shouldn't make this sort of noise?
actually both make this kind of noise, but the damaged one is by far the worst.
suggestions? thoughts?
