selection bias + small sample size = patient who quickly begins to think that no-one knows anything but they still charge you an arm and a leg.
i mean, when you start "conditioning" on all of your particular attributes, you end up with a potential population of like 50 people in the whole country. so it becomes very unlikely that someone chased all those people down and enrolled them in a prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical trial focusing on the particular malady currently afflicting you (as opposed to the other one afflicting the other guy, or the one that will strike you next week).
i can never seem to get pictures to work on here. i'm too stupid to be able to figure out or something. like, i can copy/paste them in and they show up in the editor, but disappear after posting. and i don't have a third-party site to link through, either. there's not much to see, but supposing someone enlightens me on the whole "technology" thing, i could demonstrate my
poverty simplicity.
carrying stuff on your head is, indeed very efficient. but, my understanding of those studies (relying on faulty memory here) is that you have to know how to do it and possibly even grow up doing so or have the right genetics. i thought when somebody tried to teach boys/men and white women, they either couldn't do it or didn't get the efficiency gains because they walked wrong. of course, it was probably like 4 people and a "highly motivated" anthropology master's student trying to get their thesis out the door.
that or just my bad memory.
but, the thought has crossed my mind in the past to practice running with something on my head to encourage me to run smoothly and efficiently and not flop around. i've run with rocks, sand, and stuff on my back or shoulders which smooths things out some, but on your head would also encourage a good head position. first, i need to get running (which will hopefully happen now that we officially have only one house).
Well, yes, but are all my particular attributes relevant? Can't one generalize over "active, middle-aged, degenerative meniscus tear with onset of osteoarthritis"? If in the majority of cases the prospect for osteoarthritis improves, and there are few risks involved, with intervention, then why not treat it, especially since the pain and running seemed to be so strongly correlated (like once stopping me dead in my tracks a mile into a run, and numerous other times when the knees have feel sore and/or painful while running). The sham versus real surgery study that everyone loves to quote was based on osteoarthritis, not meniscus tears that may provoke osteoarthritis, wasn't longitudinal, and was based on patients' perception of their condition, not any real objective evaluation. A certain percentage of the sham patients also went on to have real surgery later.
It seems like a lot of people who have responded to my concerns confuse osteoarthritis, which affects the articular cartilage, with my degenerative tear, which affects the meniscus cartilage. If there is a meniscus tear, or flap, or loose bit of meniscus cartilage that is floating around and causing the clicking, and occasionally getting stuck and locking up the joint (as happened last fall), and may cause long-term damage to the articular cartilage, which may eventually necessitate knee replacement surgery, isn't it worth getting it fixed? Especially if the risks are minimal to nonexistent? I mean, even in the sham surgeries, they went ahead and stuck the arthroscopes in, so it can't be too risky. It's not like someone's digging around in my spine.
Others have said to keep running, and just deal with the flare-ups. Well, the flare-ups are crippling and fairly unpredictable so it's impossible to know when to back down or ease up to avoid one.
I think all that my return to consistent lifting has proven is that lifting doesn't seem to affect the meniscus issue as adversely, if at all, as running. Which is exactly what the second Orthopedist said. So I guess just give up running and forget about the surgery is an option, except that the flap or tear or loose bit, even if not painful, may continue to cause damage to the articular cartilage. The cartilage in that area of the knee joint is largely aneural (the pain is caused when the bone is irritated), so there's no way of knowing how much it's being damaged, but these orthopedists aren't complete fools either. I think some have overestimated the influence of doctors' greed, and underestimated their professional pride, need for status or prestige, and, dare I say it, desire to make injured knees better.
I appreciate all advice and suggestions, but it would be best if they were directed towards the specific attributes of my case: degenerative meniscus tear, irritated by running to the point of crippling pain, also probably causing damage to the articular cartilage.
Solution One: just deal with it. I've done this for three years now, and it seems to just be getting worse, the flare-ups more frequent and crippling. Although, as you've pointed out, the flare-ups seem to happen most when I'm not running consistently. This could just be coincidence, because I haven't been running consistently for the last 19-20 months now. Just the passage of time may be the cause of the worsening condition.
Solution Two: try to fix it or at least minimize the damage. No real risk that I'm aware of, fairly short recovery time afterwards.
Anyway, another 10 days until I get to see the sport-coated superdoc.
Don't know what to say about the tech. I always upload JPEG or PDF files. Lately, however, Sid's videos haven't been coming through, but that's probably something to do with my browser (Firefox).
Yeah, in that study, the men and nonlocal women probably weren't given sufficient time to learn the new skill, so hard to say if it's something we could learn later in life. Like most things, probably best learned as a child. Nice recall btw.
Yah, maintaining a relatively level head and bending the knees a bit seem to lead to the same thing, a smoother gait.
Good luck re-establishing your routine.