Monday, March 26, 2007

Surgery Scheduled, But Cleared to Run

Today's visit with the sports medicine doctor was a good one. I'm scheduled for surgery on April 18th (during my spring break), but it's not so much to do repairs as it is to see what's going on inside my knee arthroscopically. The surgery is minimally invasive, and not that big of a deal.

This is great news. My doc says that the MRI isn't showing the whole picture (hence the surgery), but whatever damage is going on in there is quite minimal. So minimal, in fact, that it's safe to run on. I just have to take it easy and self-monitor the pain. He says the three weeks rest that I gave it was perfect, and I have the green light from him to start running again. He recommended only running every other day and taking it easy though, but bike riding is fine, so the road bike will be getting some good use on my days when I'm not running. Good timing, as the weather is warming up.

Dr. Brown of Orthopedic Associates of Portland is my sports doctor. He's got a terrific resume (most notably being the team doctor for the men and women's U.S. soccer teams at the World Cup).

I'm quite pleased with what he had to say, and am REALLY looking forward to going for a run tomorrow!

8 comments:

Andrew said...

Great news. Mike & I were thinking of you on our long run Sunday. The words 'second opinion' kept coming up. Hmmm.

Surgery sounds so scary.

Rose said...

That's fantastic news! I hope you have a great run your first day back on the road.

Banking Miles said...

Sweet. Good to hear the news. Taking it nice and easy with some cross training with the bike along with running sounds like a recipe for a strong recovery.

Runner NYC said...

Wonderful! Take it easy on those runs and make sure you're not pushing yourself!

Phil said...

Great news! Now that's what you need to find a doctor that understands sports medicine.

Looking forward to reading your first "run" report in a while.

UMaine Cooperative Extension said...

That is some good news> Looks like you found a doc who knows what he's talking about.

Michael Jay Dotson said...

Since you’re going to have surgery anyway, why not got out and do 20 or so 400m. repeats just to blow things out :)

Seriously, I’m glad to hear that you’re going to get it taken care of AND you can run in the interim. Keep us posted on your progress.

Olga said...

Oh, my...I guess going in to figure things out is what needs to be done. I have a friend who had it (arthroscopic analysis) and they found a small tear and repaired it on exam. Wish you all the best - heal up before that Mt. Wash run! I did Whiteface Mt. back...5 years ago? It was awesome!