My Right Knee

The minor dislocations of my right knee about which I wrote in Health Report - December 16, 2022 started in October of last year but the history of trouble with my right knee goes back to at least 2011. In June and July of that year I took running workshops with my Feldenkrais colleague Jae Gruenke. In one of those workshops Jae talked about how a cadence of approximately 180 steps per minute takes advantage of the elasticity of tissues. At that time I was running with a cadence of about 135 and felt the increased efficiency when I experimented with a cadence of about 180. The next day I rode my bike with a corresponding cadence (about 90 revolutions per minute) and again felt the increased efficiency when compared to a lower cadence. Unfortunately my right knee later felt swollen, probably the result of pedaling in way that stressed my knee. That swelling continued for many months, and in January of 2012, I saw Dr. Rose, an orthopedist, about the trouble. Dr. Rose found some bursitis in front of my patella and minimal synovial impingement.

In October of 2012 I took a Feldenkrais workshop with Andrew Gibbons that focused on the use of the hips, knees, and ankles. In that workshop I felt a wonderful connection of my legs with the ground, the best I had felt since before the injury the previous year. The next day I looked for that same sort of connection with my pedals when riding. I rode only five easy miles, doing no sprinting or climbing. I felt a good connection with my pedals but later that night I was unable to bear weight through my right knee. I crawled to get from my living room to my bedroom. The next day I had someone buy me a pair of crutches so that I could travel to the office of Dr. Craig Capeci, an orthopedist. I was concerned I had ruined my knee, so I was relieved when Dr. Capeci said that the joint was fine but there was bursitis in front of the patella that would resolve with rest. I didn't ride my bike for six weeks to allow my knee to heal.

My right knee 10-23-2012

How, in the span of two days, did I go from having a wonderful connection between my legs and the ground or my pedals to being unable to bear weight through the knee? My best guess is that the tissues around the knee, which had been irritated for more than a year, were unable to deal with the stress of the superior organization I had discovered in Andrew's workshop. Did I overdo it by riding five miles the day after the workshop, even though I did no sprinting or climbing? Would I have avoided the bursitis if I hadn't ridden that day? I'll never know.

Through the following years I paid attention to my pedaling, being aware of any hint of trouble. The occasional twinges in my right knee became less and less frequent. During my 4,500-mile 90-day trip in 2019 my right knee never caused me any problems, although I did get some help for my knee from Mike McConeghey, a practitioner of the Activator Method of chiropractic. In September of 2019, one month after I completed my 4,5000-mile trip, I did a two-day trip to Beaver Pond Campground. During that trip I was uncomfortable in my right knee so immediately after I returned I went to CityMD where X-rays of my knee were taken. Mild swelling in the front of my knee was seen but no other trouble.

My right knee 9-26-2019

In September of 2021 I corrected the orientation of the spindle to which the cranks are attached so that the pedals would be symmetrical around the center of the bike (see Gear Update - September 22, 2021). That change, and a private Feldenkrais lesson with Anastasi Siotas to help me integrate the new location of the pedals into my riding, increased the comfort of my right knee.

In February of 2022 I started to experience muscle weakness, stiffness, and achiness in my shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands, fingers, hips, and knees. I first wrote about this trouble in Health Report - September 13, 2022. It prevented me from taking any multi-day trips until I took a three-day trip of 180 miles in October of 2022. I felt fine throughout the trip but one week later I started to experience what I think were minor dislocations of my right knee. A few days later I had a private lesson from my Feldenkrais colleague Marek Wyszynski. As a result of that lesson I learned to initiate turns to the left with my right leg and turns to the right with my left left. From mid-November through early-December I had four sessions of physical therapy with Karen Senko. The dislocations immediately became less intense and less frequent, and by late December had completely stopped. I wrote about the progress I had made from mid-September through mid-December in Health Report - December 16, 2022.

In early January of 2023 I found myself still favoring and not fully trusting my right knee and had a consultation with Dr. Marci Goolsby, a sports-medicine physician. The X-rays showed satisfactory alignment of the patella with the femur but narrowing of the medial compartment.

My right knee 1-11-2023

In reviewing all the reports from doctors who have examined my right knee or read X-rays of it, it seems that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the knee, but my habits of movement somehow stress it in ways that cause trouble. I will continue to use the Feldenkrais Method to improve the way I move so that I avoid such trouble. I've already done the lessons in Marek Wyszynski's OutStanding Knees series and will do them again several times. I will do the same with Marek's series Fabulous Feet & Ankles.

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