Back in September I posted a few photo's of a backpack elk hunt I did with my son in Colorado. It was a great time but not without some problems.
This was to be my third trip with my son and I had been working out all year around so I could be ready especially since I turned 61 last year.
About July I started to increase my work outs, and that is when I felt something wrong in my knee. But I thought I could rest a bit and work it out. When September came I thought it was doable but I still experienced some pain.
I told my son Matt about it and he suggested he could ride his mtn bike in with a cart behind it. So we tried that and it worked except he had to make two trips to my one trip. Long story short he biked with pack on back and cart 10.5 miles and I did my 3.5.
It really gassed him to do that and since most of our food was gone I suggested that we should try to do it in one trip each on the way out. By the time I made it to the truck I knew my knee was really messed up.
When I got back to North Dakota I scheduled an appointment with a joint specialist who gave me a shot in the knee and that helped but the pain never completely went away.
Another doctor told me I had started down the path towards knee replacement - maybe a ways off but it was going to happen.
By chance I met a sports medicine physical therapist who thought she could help me. She gave me a regimen of exercises and a couple of treatments to reduce inflammation.
I am not out of the woods yet, but she already thinks I can get back to the condition I was in before the incident (without surgery)
You don't know how excited I am by this. I thought my mountain hiking, not to mention mountain hunting days were done for. One of my goals was to be able to accompany my son and six year old grandson on an elk hunt and now it looks possible again!
I am so pumped for next year I can hardly stand it.
Topic: Some great news (Read 593 times)
