Seven weeks ago yesterday, I had a knee scope.

About 10 months ago, I tripped over some forks at work. They were left up in the air by a self-proclaimed “safety conscious guru” who left them in the air to show someone how to “do something right.” Leaving the forks up in the air is not an example of doing something right. I had my back turned to the equipment, turned and walked right into the forks in a couple of steps. They were at about halfway up my calf, where I still have a scar. Not only did I fall over them, but I did a lot of twisting and turning to avoid putting my face into one of the other forks, or the floor. While I was successful there, I was not successful in keeping my knee healthy. I could feel something give, hit the ground and crawled around for a bit.

The first words out of the mouth of the guy who left the forks up: “Boy, you really are blind!”, only a couple of seconds after I had hit the floor. He never once apologized nor did he take any responsibility. In fact, it was myself who was taking the responsibility, saying it was my fault – something which is actually pretty common among people who have poor eyesight. We find ourselves apologizing to Wet Floor signs quite a bit. I never filled out an accident report at work, which was my fault. Of course, he had never reported it to management either. (Incidentally, this same coworker always claimed that running would ruin my knees, offering no solid proof of this claim. In reality, it was he who hurt my knees, but they are still far from ruined, thanks to that scope and a fine recovery program)

Little did I know, I had torn my meniscus. I did not go to the doctor after the incident. A few hours after, I was limping and it was aching, but not beyond anything I had felt before. I ran a half marathon that weekend and there was some ache again, but again, I did not think it was anything bad. Did a couple of marathons that fall, one ended up being my better time in years. Again, there was pain, but I thought it was normal.

Fall turned to winter, and the pain grew greater. My pace began to drop, as did my distances. I ran less, rested more. Finally one day at work in January, my knee gave out while I was literally turning a corner. Naturally, that corner was not the cause of it giving out, simply a last straw. I knew something was wrong and set up an appointment with some knee specialists.

Dr. Zink was of great help. We rested it for a while, with some exercises to strengthen the meniscus. But, it was still feeling the same going into April. The pain was not greater, but consistent. X-Rays showed a very healthy, sound knee. The MRI showed a slight tear with just enough debris from the tear to cause annoyance and pain. Finally, we decided on a scope. On May 17, I had the deed done by Dr. Delcamp, who had worked on my wife’s shoulder a few years before.

I basically stayed bed ridden the first two days, went on a short half mile walk that Saturday. That Sunday, we had a 5K I had signed up for months before. Obviously, it was not going to happen, so I cheered Mindy on at the race, walking a mile and a half in the process.

The next week, we had another 5K. This time, I walked it. The knee was feeling pretty good.

During the middle of the next week, I decided to go to the location of the first 5K and make up for that race, walking the course. I also walked to and from the course, putting in a total of seven walking miles that day. The knee still felt good.

One June 9, 18 days after the scope, we had the Strawberry Festival 10K. My plan was to walk the whole thing. Things did not go as planned, but in a good way. A quarter of a mile into the race, runners from the 5K were turning back, while the rest of us were still going out. I was feeling pretty good, there was no longer a crowd of people in front of me, and there was a guy a short distance ahead of me I just had to catch. So I ran for a little bit. It was short spirts, maybe 50 to 100 meters. The pace wasn’t all that, I was taking it nice and easy. I never stopped running because of pain, but sometimes for general discomfort. Near the end of the race, I was running for spirts of a tenth of a mile to a quarter of a mile to a third of a mile. I ached a bit after the race, but I did not hurt.

I ran some very short sprints during the week. Nothing bad at all. Did some yardwork. Mowed the grass. Felt good.

The next week, we had a trail 5K. This time, I actually ran the full 3.1, save a couple of walk breaks in dark areas. With retinitis pigmentosa, seeing in the dark can be challenging. Seeing in dark areas surrounded by light areas can be like climbing a mountain. So I walked to be safe. I sure did not break any personal records with that run, but I kept at a pretty OK pace and felt good about it.

The running started picking up a little bit more. Nothing major. Sometimes there would be runs in the middle of my long runs. By this time, I was taking walks longer than a 10K during the week, while walking 10 miles plus on weekends.

When I went into my one month post-surgery visit, the first words out of Dr. Delcamp’s mouth was “How does the knee feel”, the second question was “have you started running yet?” I could not lie, told him yes, he smiled and nodded and asked if I was ready to go back to work yet. I certainly was and was cleared to return to work on June 19, five weeks after being off.

At the same time, on June 19, my marathon training had started for the Chicago Marathon. I have run 35 marathons before, so I kinda know what I am doing. But, since I am still in recovery mode, I chose the beginner’s program on Garmin. It has worked quite nicely, actually. I feel like the workouts have been perfect for recovery. The long runs have not been too long, the workouts have not been too stressful. A week into the program, I added my own extra easy run day to the program – it originally had three running days per week, I feel like I can handle more.

Soon, I will be adding a fifth day to those runs, and adjusting the schedule to my liking. But, I am not rushing into it. A knee scope is pretty simple, but is still something to care for. And care for it I will.