Re: Ever get a bruised knee bone from doing a long hike?

I never had knee problems until a few years ago when I had to hike down a
4000 foot drop in 3 miles.  My knees were so sore I could hardly walk.  I
thought I was going to have to be hauled out by the forest service.  I
still get sore knees when I do long down hill slopes, but walking on the
flat or climbing doesn't bother them.  I am afraid that being 67 years old
and 20 pounds overweight may have something to do with this (don't like to
admit this).  I have been advised the best thing I can do is exercise a lot
and keep the muscles around my knees as strong as possible (and lose the 20
pounds).

Good luck and welcome to the old guy sore knee club :-)

Dennis

On Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 12:12 PM, Roleigh Martin <[email protected]> wrote:

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> I did fine on my 2012 3rd full-thru JMT hike for the first 16 days of
> hiking but on the 17th and 26th day of hiking the ordinary schedule is to
> do about 4-5 miles uphill then 10-11 miles downhill (with the downhill
> being about 3800 and 6000 feet of descent (respectively descending from
> Muir Pass and Mt Whitney (the tallest mountain in the 48 contiguous
> states)).  Each of these two days, my left knee became inflamed and I ended
> up favoring the right knee to the point it became sore too.  After the Muir
> Pass descent, the knee quickly recovered in about 5-6 days (I was hiking
> with a limp though), but after Whitney (which was the final exit day of the
> full JMT trail), my knees were so sore, that 12 days later (today), I'm
> still sore (not as much when not using the knee) and slowly handle stairs
> and walk a little slowly.
>
> I should have taken two days apiece to do each long descent and I&#39;d
> have been in much better shape now (perhaps not have the problem at all).
> I did not have this problem prior to the torn knee meniscus issue (which
> I've reported on earlier<http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=54921>and which happened July 2, 2011), so I know that the prolotherapy sessions
> have not healed my knee 100% fully.  I need to continue the treatments and
> will. I hope I did not worsen my knees because of those two days
> (particularly the last day).  I feel like I am only about 2% better each
> day so I know it will be probably 1-2 months before I know the full
> impact.  I was told that prolotherapy treatment for older people can be up
> to 6-9 sessions.  I have had 3 stem cell prolotherapy treatments and 3
> standard prolotherapy treatments.  I am going to continue my treatments but
> have switched clinics to one locally in Avon, CT.  A Dr. Paul at
> http://jockdoctors.com -- I think he is as good as the provider who did
> the stem cell treatment from Chicago.
>
> I feel like daily I am getting about 2-3% better so I think in 1-2 months,
> I'll be back to normal.  I wondered what had happened to me and after some
> Google Research feel I suffered a non-surface visible knee bone bruise.  I
> found some interesting links on this:
>
> http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-symptoms-of-a-bone-bruise.htm
> "Sometimes the bruise is visible on the skin when other soft tissues are
> bruised, but the only definitive way to determine if swelling is the result
> of a bone bruise is with an X-ray."
>
> http://www.livestrong.com/article/24790-bruised-bone/
> http://www.livestrong.com/article/84542-treat-deep-bone-bruise-knee/
>
> http://www.livestrong.com/article/423506-physical-therapy-for-a-bruised-knee-bone/
>
> http://tinyurl.com/9gqtw4l <http://www.healio.com/>
> "Magnetic resonance imaging of 1546 patients revealed bone bruises in 19%
> of patients without an associated meniscal or ligamentous injury. For those
> patients presenting with at least one meniscoligamentous injury, the
> frequency of bruising was 60% at 0 to 4 weeks, 42% at 4 to 10 weeks, and
> 31% at 10 to 26 weeks postinjury."
>
> http://www.ajronline.org/content/189/3/556.full
> "RESULTS. In 80 patients, 157 bone bruises were found. The estimated
> median healing time was 42.1 weeks. Healing was prolonged in patients
> having a higher number of bone bruises and in the presence of
> osteoarthritis. Resolution of individual bone bruises was prolonged in the
> presence of osteoarthritis and greater age. Reticular lesions were less
> likely to be present after 6 months than other bone bruise types."
>
>
> http://www.livestrong.com/article/538956-how-to-recover-from-a-knee-bone-bruise-after-running/
>
> I'm going to be contacting Dr. Tortland shortly.
>
> I'll update this posting after seeing him.
>
> I am wondering if others have had a similar problem.  I plan on doing a
> JMT in 2013 again (my 6th but 4th planned full thru-hike of the JMT) but am
> currently planning on doing the distance I did in one day apiece for the
> Muir Pass and Trail Crest Pass descents into two days apiece so that I do
> not have such long continuous downhill descents in one day.
>
> Thanks in advance!
> -------------------------------------------------
> Visit my Google Profile (lots of very interesting research links)<https://profiles.google.com/104440166440169700478/about>
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