Good knee news .. but no race on Sunday

Went to the doctor to let him have a look at my knee. Mainly, I wanted to make sure what was going on and if this would have an impact on my next season’s Ironman plans …

It was the first time I went to this specific doctor, but felt very comfortable. He manipulated my knee quite a bit, but other than the swelling and the resulting inability to properly bend and extend the knee, it wasn’t too uncomfortable. He then went on to take ultrasound pictures and soon gave me the good news that my knee was okay. Based on what he was telling me, I had torn my posterior cruciate ligament twelve years ago, which is something that is not operated on even today. So absolutely no need for an operation.

But what caused the swelling? Based on the ultrasound, I had torn some muscle fibers in my quadriceps muscle which caused a lot of fluid build-up. Here’s the picture:

I’m not sure I got everything he explained, but here’s as best as I understood it. The picture is taken from the knee (on the top right you can still see a bit of the kneecap) up the femur. The top is where my skin is, the bottom goes “into” the thigh towards the bone. On the bottom you can see the femur, on the top you can see the quadriceps. In between is a big “black hole” which is the fluid that has built up.

This fluid will get slowly absorbed by the muscle and weaken the muscle for a bit. Therefore, even when the swelling is gone, the muscle is not yet back to its original strength, it takes a bit longer for the muscle to properly heal.

He estimates about two weeks for the swelling to be completely gone. I can slowly start some training once I can fully extend the knee, but I should start slowly and carefully in order not to hurt the muscle again (like I did last time). A start in Ratzeburg this Sunday is totally out of the picture, I wouldn’t be able to run very well and would be in grave danger to really hurt myself. (Plus, it won’t be any fun at all to have an injury “out in the boonies”.) So I’ll give myself some extra rest this time and figure out how to get back on track during December.

Some good news and some bad news. But I’m totally relived that it’s not anything serious, and that I can still go ahead with my racing plans for 2010!

.. still on!