How I got my knee to function again
Dedicated to Dr. Daniel C. Wnorowski
(You will get such photos of your knee as a present after surgery with
Dr. Wnorowski)
I tore my medial meniscus
(cartilage tissue in a knee, positioning and cushioning the bones) running in the woods.
Slipping off the mountain bike trail in Oahu a few months later made it worse to the point
I could not even hike down steeper mountains without a pain
(going up was OK), not to mention running.
My running friends recommended Dr. Wnorowski ,
who happened to be the orthopedic doctor of choice also for close family friends.
After proper diagnosis which took an MRI, I went through outpatient arthroscopic surgery to remove damaged part of meniscus.
Apparently it is better to have some part of meniscus missing than live with a crack in it which opens up when stressed.
The surgery itself took less than an hour, with only light anesthesia.
I was able to walk out of the hospital without crutches soon after it.
After anesthetics wore off I took pain killers in the evening and first night.
The pain never came back after I woke up the next day.
I followed suggested recovery procedure (rested with leg straight and elevated, iced it few times a day, did leg exercises).
Three tiny incisions on my leg (5mm or so) healed fast.
I started walking around the house and even drove and worked briefly on the 2nd day of recovery.
At the end of 3rd day I tried biking for 20min and it felt good,
so the next day I left the house on my bike with intention to turn back when I would feel some fatigue or pain.
Since these never came I ended up doing 60 km (37 miles) including some steep hills,
though I was going slower than normally and used my healthy knee to do most of the work on the climbs and also took some extended breaks.
I have been biking normally since then (essentially every day if not doing some other workout).
Two weeks after the surgery I started mountain biking including a rough terrain (South Extension trail in Highland Forest).
Three weeks after surgery I started running. The doc told me to start from one lap and increase it gradually with time.
I couldn't restrain myself from doing 14 laps right away at my easy pace from half-a-year ago.
No pain in the knee (muscles are a different story; apparently running and cycling muscles are not the same).
The doctor told me the knee would swell after running but it didn't.
My friends, some of them are doctors, told me I was crazy cycling so much soon after surgery,
but Dr. Wnorowski told me 10 days after the surgery that I was in top 1% in terms of speed of recovery.
I am actually attributing much of it to his skills as a surgeon!
If you live in Central New York and have a knee problem try to get an appointment with him.
You can find the places where he sees patients on his web site ,
which is an interesting page to look up anyway, since he is an athlete and a mountaineer.
They are very efficient with appointments and you will not waste much time in the waiting room.
Have your story and questions ready, since the doctor is to the point and he will not waste your time either.
Many thanks to Dr. Wnorowski!
10 days after surgery
Tomasz Skwarnicki <tomasz@physics.syr.edu>