Hi All,
Well, these were the laziest weeks I had in years... I gave my knee a lot of rest and did not do any training at all.
Since the last post I have to deal with the fact that my knee swells up each time I start walking and the swelling reduces again when I sit or lie down or cycle.
So this is not really going well, but on the positive side, I have the feeling that each day the swelling becomes less and less and I hope that the end of this mess is nearing. Today I visited the knee surgeon again for a check up, and he is forwarding me to a physiotherapist to guide me further. If the pain stays away and the swelling keeps reducing than it is ok. If not I might need more work on the knee :(. I do have to say that the surgeon was not looking to happy, he is a bit worried that there is still a problem in my knee, but for the moment he still hopes this is just the after effect of the internal bleeding.... so fingers crossed.
Last Tuesday I had enough of it, and I went out to the park during lunch break at work and I just started Qi Gong and Tai Chi training. I did not notice any negative effects on my knee, so I am going to do that again tomorrow. But now it will be getting exiting, cause I want to try to do all, or at least some of my kung fu Taolu on slow paste again for the first time in many weeks.
If that goes well then next week I will start building up the training schedule again. So lets hope so!
Amituofo!
donderdag 30 juli 2015
zondag 19 juli 2015
19th of July - Change of plans :(
Amituofo!
There has been a change of plans.
You might have noticed that the amount of updates dropped quite a bit last week.
Since my knee got drained it did not swell up anymore and I decided to stop training completely for one or two weeks. Just to force my self not to do too much and give my knee time to heal.
This approach worked pretty well. I slowly started walking a little more, went to work at the office a couple times. Last weekend I started driving a bit. And my knee started feeling better by the day. Also the bending capability improved every day.
Unfortunately, and with a lot of pain in my heart, I had to cancel my planned trip to the Shaolin monastery due to financial reasons. :(
Now my plans to go to china next year are also uncertain. I wanted to do the Germany trip first, to see if my knees can hold such a rigorous training regime, and I rather get injured in Germany then in China. And I cannot afford 2 months of holiday in one year unfortunately. So I might choose to go to Germany next year and to go to China a year later.
Anyway... Yesterday I spend a whole day working on my car (the big red one).
And afterwards I had to walk back home from the edge of the city I live in (Nijmegen Oost to city center). This was the first long walk I did since the surgery. And I also was up and working all day on the car (literally, from noon till midnight).
Today my knee therefore decided to object and has started swelling up again :(
Looks like I will again be forced to calm down for a while.
I am really getting de-motivated by this crap and find it hard to keep up a positive attitude.
Coming week I have a week of, and I think I might start training again. My knee does not hurt this time, so I might be able to reduce the swelling with some exercises again, like last times before the 'draining'. It depends a bit on what the knee will do coming night and tomorrow.
Anyway, you'll notice soon enough by a new blog post...
There has been a change of plans.
You might have noticed that the amount of updates dropped quite a bit last week.
Since my knee got drained it did not swell up anymore and I decided to stop training completely for one or two weeks. Just to force my self not to do too much and give my knee time to heal.
This approach worked pretty well. I slowly started walking a little more, went to work at the office a couple times. Last weekend I started driving a bit. And my knee started feeling better by the day. Also the bending capability improved every day.
Unfortunately, and with a lot of pain in my heart, I had to cancel my planned trip to the Shaolin monastery due to financial reasons. :(
Now my plans to go to china next year are also uncertain. I wanted to do the Germany trip first, to see if my knees can hold such a rigorous training regime, and I rather get injured in Germany then in China. And I cannot afford 2 months of holiday in one year unfortunately. So I might choose to go to Germany next year and to go to China a year later.
Anyway... Yesterday I spend a whole day working on my car (the big red one).
And afterwards I had to walk back home from the edge of the city I live in (Nijmegen Oost to city center). This was the first long walk I did since the surgery. And I also was up and working all day on the car (literally, from noon till midnight).
Today my knee therefore decided to object and has started swelling up again :(
Looks like I will again be forced to calm down for a while.
I am really getting de-motivated by this crap and find it hard to keep up a positive attitude.
Coming week I have a week of, and I think I might start training again. My knee does not hurt this time, so I might be able to reduce the swelling with some exercises again, like last times before the 'draining'. It depends a bit on what the knee will do coming night and tomorrow.
Anyway, you'll notice soon enough by a new blog post...
Amituofo!
vrijdag 10 juli 2015
8th/9th of July: Not for the faint-hearted
Today's stats:
Amituofo!
Sorry for the delay in this post, I had some other stuff to do first.
Little news about last Wednesday. My knee is still thick and getting quite sore again. The pain dropped since my last work out, and seems to be getting worse again now. So in the evening I did another 'lying down' workout. I'm starting to have the feeling that walking makes my knee hurt, but exercising my upper legs is helping the swelling to reduce and thereby making my whole leg feel better.
I did roughly the same lying down fitness workout as last Monday. But I replaced the weight training for a 'pseudo' Wing Chun kung-fu training. I put on my wrist weights (1,5kg per wrist)
and in 3 sets I did a total of:
- Weight: Not measured.
- Training location : @Home
- Duration: 1h00m
- Intensity: Moderate
Amituofo!
Sorry for the delay in this post, I had some other stuff to do first.
Little news about last Wednesday. My knee is still thick and getting quite sore again. The pain dropped since my last work out, and seems to be getting worse again now. So in the evening I did another 'lying down' workout. I'm starting to have the feeling that walking makes my knee hurt, but exercising my upper legs is helping the swelling to reduce and thereby making my whole leg feel better.
I did roughly the same lying down fitness workout as last Monday. But I replaced the weight training for a 'pseudo' Wing Chun kung-fu training. I put on my wrist weights (1,5kg per wrist)
and in 3 sets I did a total of:
- 300 Lying down chain punches (Wing Chun style)
- 75 leg lifts (to work the lower abs)
- 300 Taan Sau Punch combination
(150 with 'imaginary punch coming from outside in, and 150 with imaginary coming straight) - 75 sit ups (to work the upper abs)
- 300 Gaan Sau Punch combination
- 75 superman leg and arm lifts (lying on the stomach, lifting legs and arms)
- 300 Man Sau, Taan Sau, Gaan Sau overtakes of an (imaginary) incoming puch finished by a counter punch to the kidneys.
- 75 side leg lifts left leg ( for the side abs)
This workout shortly relieved the knee pain again, but in the evening it got a little worse again.
Luckily the next day my knee was gain feeling better. And more importantly, today (Thursday) was doctor day. I had to visit the hospital again for a checkup with the surgeon.
He was not really shocked about the knee, he had seen worse swelling, and as mentioned before, I already had the feeling that the swelling is less dense now then before.
I have a bit of fear, because my symptoms now are the same as before the surgery, that the original problem re-occurred. I asked him if we could test his hypothesis that I had an internal bleeding, which would indicate that its not again the original problem, but a mere over stress after the operation.
And he said yes... by draining the fluid in your knee. If it contains blood or blood clutter then there was evidence of a bleeding.
Well... I think that says it all. So I have to agree that the doctors conclusion is on the right track.
Most of the fluid was drained, which didn't hurt b.t.w., only the last bit when the knee was going vacuum was very unpleasant, but still, I am very re-leaved that for the first time in weeks my knee was not swollen and I immediately could bend my leg a little more. He also injected some Pretnison which should help keeping the swelling down.
Unfortunately after 15 minutes I already felt it swelling up again. But it did not get as big as before, by far!.At the moment of typing this (Friday early morning), I have the feeling that the swelling even reduced a bit since yesterday. The doctor also told me to start doing some more things again, but be careful for not to do to much.
So I will start doing the bending/stretching exercises that will help remove the moist that is still left in there. But I will be careful with the amount of walking, I even bought some crutches for the outdoors movements. Next week I will build up the walking gradually and hopefully the week after I feel confident enough to start driving again, that is, if the knee does not swell up again in the mean time.
For now I feel positive :)
Amituofo!
Luckily the next day my knee was gain feeling better. And more importantly, today (Thursday) was doctor day. I had to visit the hospital again for a checkup with the surgeon.
He was not really shocked about the knee, he had seen worse swelling, and as mentioned before, I already had the feeling that the swelling is less dense now then before.
I have a bit of fear, because my symptoms now are the same as before the surgery, that the original problem re-occurred. I asked him if we could test his hypothesis that I had an internal bleeding, which would indicate that its not again the original problem, but a mere over stress after the operation.
And he said yes... by draining the fluid in your knee. If it contains blood or blood clutter then there was evidence of a bleeding.
Well... I think that says it all. So I have to agree that the doctors conclusion is on the right track.
Most of the fluid was drained, which didn't hurt b.t.w., only the last bit when the knee was going vacuum was very unpleasant, but still, I am very re-leaved that for the first time in weeks my knee was not swollen and I immediately could bend my leg a little more. He also injected some Pretnison which should help keeping the swelling down.
Unfortunately after 15 minutes I already felt it swelling up again. But it did not get as big as before, by far!.At the moment of typing this (Friday early morning), I have the feeling that the swelling even reduced a bit since yesterday. The doctor also told me to start doing some more things again, but be careful for not to do to much.
So I will start doing the bending/stretching exercises that will help remove the moist that is still left in there. But I will be careful with the amount of walking, I even bought some crutches for the outdoors movements. Next week I will build up the walking gradually and hopefully the week after I feel confident enough to start driving again, that is, if the knee does not swell up again in the mean time.
For now I feel positive :)
Amituofo!
maandag 6 juli 2015
6th of July: Pfff......
Today's stats:
Amituofo!
My knee is not making me happy. Situation is relatively unchanged. Last week it started hurting again, and I had to go back to taking meds against the pain. My knee is not really getting smaller.
I did start working again for half days since Wednesday.(the upside of doing a lot of programming and such for work! You can do such work from home!)
The situation now also got a bit counterproductive. I spoke the surgeon again last Friday morning, and he thinks this is all the result of an internal bleeding last week Sunday. Now I may not bend/move/walk for a couple of days. But I read in multiple online sources that "THE" remedy against a swollen knee is to keep moving, since the muscles need to be getting rid of the excess blood and moist. So to let the 'internals' heel I may not move, but to get rid of the swelling I must move...
The doctor thinks the swelling will be less with a couple of days rest. But to be honest, I cannot confirm that.
So since Friday morning I tried to stick to the doctors recipe. The summer temperature went up a lot so I did change location to my parents place, to be able to put my leg up while lying in a nice inflatable pool :) but other than that I I didn't bend or load my knee.
Today I was really sick of it. The 'internals' of the knee feels good now. I had no pain what-so-ever when I had to support my body occasionally (Yeah I know, I am not supposed to do that, but if your body feels no pain, than that happens kind of naturally). So I tried to walk a little bit more today, in the hope that this reduces the swelling (since 3 days of lying down showed no difference at all).
I also did an upper body workout again today, last week I really felt good the day after, so lets see what happens tomorrow.
I did roughly the same lying down fitness workout as last week. Just added some superman arm/leg lifts (if you train abs, you should also train the muscles in your back to keep it balanced) In 3 sets I did a total of:
Amituofo!
- Weight: Not measured.
- Training location : @Home
- Duration: 1h00m
- Intensity: Moderate
Amituofo!
My knee is not making me happy. Situation is relatively unchanged. Last week it started hurting again, and I had to go back to taking meds against the pain. My knee is not really getting smaller.
I did start working again for half days since Wednesday.(the upside of doing a lot of programming and such for work! You can do such work from home!)
The situation now also got a bit counterproductive. I spoke the surgeon again last Friday morning, and he thinks this is all the result of an internal bleeding last week Sunday. Now I may not bend/move/walk for a couple of days. But I read in multiple online sources that "THE" remedy against a swollen knee is to keep moving, since the muscles need to be getting rid of the excess blood and moist. So to let the 'internals' heel I may not move, but to get rid of the swelling I must move...
The doctor thinks the swelling will be less with a couple of days rest. But to be honest, I cannot confirm that.
So since Friday morning I tried to stick to the doctors recipe. The summer temperature went up a lot so I did change location to my parents place, to be able to put my leg up while lying in a nice inflatable pool :) but other than that I I didn't bend or load my knee.
Today I was really sick of it. The 'internals' of the knee feels good now. I had no pain what-so-ever when I had to support my body occasionally (Yeah I know, I am not supposed to do that, but if your body feels no pain, than that happens kind of naturally). So I tried to walk a little bit more today, in the hope that this reduces the swelling (since 3 days of lying down showed no difference at all).
I also did an upper body workout again today, last week I really felt good the day after, so lets see what happens tomorrow.
I did roughly the same lying down fitness workout as last week. Just added some superman arm/leg lifts (if you train abs, you should also train the muscles in your back to keep it balanced) In 3 sets I did a total of:
- 75 bench presses with elbows close to body, for punching power
- 75 leg lifts (to work the lower abs)
- 75 bench presses with elbows wide, for shoulder strength
- 75 sit ups (to work the upper abs)
- 75 bench presses 'diamond' style, to work the triceps
- 75 superman leg and arm lifts (lying on the stomach, lifting legs and arms)
- 75 butterflies (with arms bend, since I want power for hook punches and not over stretch my shoulders)
- 75 side leg lifts right leg (for the side abs)
- 75 side leg lifts left leg ( for the side abs)
- And finally 75 'side slashes', don't know if there is an official
name for this. Basically mimicking a neck slash from inside out, like in
one of my earlier wing chun practice videos.
Below you find a little 'find the 10 differences game' :P
Amituofo!
dinsdag 30 juni 2015
30th of June : Working of some laziness...
Today's stats:
Amituofo!
So... my knee is as swollen as it was yesterday. So bending/walking etc is not an option. But, the pain started to drop again. If it feels like this tomorrow then I can get some work done tomorrow and make my boss happy :)
This evening I was really gutted that I couldn't do anything with this beautiful weather. So to get rid of some frustration and to get rid of last weeks laziness I decided to do a upper-body workout like I did when the whole knee issue started.
I took my last pain killers in the morning and didn't feel to much pain during the day, so it should be fine to kick up the heart rate and blood pressure a bit. I truly believe (although I cannot back this up scientifically, just by experience) it's also help full for the healing process to get the blood pumping and to put the body in 'muscle building' mode.
I did a lying down fitness workout. In 3 sets I did a total of:
Feels so good! Now just hope my knee heels quickly. I am afraid though that I will be overloading it more often in the coming weeks, since I have the feeling that I don't get pain signals from it when I overload it. Thinking back, what I have know is exactly what I had when it all started (knee swelling up and feeling sore with no appearant reason or pain warning, and now hurting in exactly the same place), just hope that I am not back at square one... then it will take a long time to recover since now the doctor cannot see anything on a MRI scan anymore. But let's assume it is just overloaded due to my everlasting stubbornness.
For those interested in working out while keeping your leg up and un-loaded.
Here is an example (PS... didn't count this set in the list that is above... so should add 25 bench presses to the list ;) ):
Amituofo!
- Weight: Not measured.
- Training location : @Home
- Duration: 1h00m
- Intensity: Moderate
Amituofo!
So... my knee is as swollen as it was yesterday. So bending/walking etc is not an option. But, the pain started to drop again. If it feels like this tomorrow then I can get some work done tomorrow and make my boss happy :)
This evening I was really gutted that I couldn't do anything with this beautiful weather. So to get rid of some frustration and to get rid of last weeks laziness I decided to do a upper-body workout like I did when the whole knee issue started.
I took my last pain killers in the morning and didn't feel to much pain during the day, so it should be fine to kick up the heart rate and blood pressure a bit. I truly believe (although I cannot back this up scientifically, just by experience) it's also help full for the healing process to get the blood pumping and to put the body in 'muscle building' mode.
I did a lying down fitness workout. In 3 sets I did a total of:
- 75 bench presses with elbows close to body, for punching power
- 75 leg lifts (to work the lower abs)
- 75 bench presses with elbows wide, for shoulder strength
- 75 sit ups (to work the upper abs)
- 75 bench presses 'diamond' style, to work the triceps
- 75 side leg lifts right leg (for the side abs)
- 75 side leg lifts left leg ( for the side abs)
- 75 butterflies (with arms bend, since I want power for hook punches and not over stretch my shoulders)
- And finally 30 'side slashes', don't know if there is an official name for this. Basically mimicking a neck slash from inside out, like in one of my earlier wing chun practice videos
Feels so good! Now just hope my knee heels quickly. I am afraid though that I will be overloading it more often in the coming weeks, since I have the feeling that I don't get pain signals from it when I overload it. Thinking back, what I have know is exactly what I had when it all started (knee swelling up and feeling sore with no appearant reason or pain warning, and now hurting in exactly the same place), just hope that I am not back at square one... then it will take a long time to recover since now the doctor cannot see anything on a MRI scan anymore. But let's assume it is just overloaded due to my everlasting stubbornness.
For those interested in working out while keeping your leg up and un-loaded.
Here is an example (PS... didn't count this set in the list that is above... so should add 25 bench presses to the list ;) ):
Amituofo!
maandag 29 juni 2015
Hmmm... that doesn't feel good
Amituofo!
Small update.
My knee was doing very well last week. On Saterday I was able to walk without limping, and I even joined Tai Ji class (I felt I had to since it was my last class). And that went all just fine. Yesterday (Sunday) however, something went wrong. I visited my parents house and drove by car to the village that they live in. I was allowed to drive (doctors advice) when I was able to walk en bend my knee pain free again, so that didn't seem to be a problem. When I got out of the car on the way back home however, my knee didn't feel right. And I was feeling pain when I stood on it. This pain got really severe when I got home, and I needed to take pain medication again. This time I also took the 'heavy' pills, which I didn't need after the surgery, that's how intense the pain was (and now still is).
My knee got all swollen and I cannot bend or stretch is now. So I think I will be confined to bed for a couple of days.
Hope I can walk again soon.
Amituofo!
Small update.
My knee was doing very well last week. On Saterday I was able to walk without limping, and I even joined Tai Ji class (I felt I had to since it was my last class). And that went all just fine. Yesterday (Sunday) however, something went wrong. I visited my parents house and drove by car to the village that they live in. I was allowed to drive (doctors advice) when I was able to walk en bend my knee pain free again, so that didn't seem to be a problem. When I got out of the car on the way back home however, my knee didn't feel right. And I was feeling pain when I stood on it. This pain got really severe when I got home, and I needed to take pain medication again. This time I also took the 'heavy' pills, which I didn't need after the surgery, that's how intense the pain was (and now still is).
My knee got all swollen and I cannot bend or stretch is now. So I think I will be confined to bed for a couple of days.
Hope I can walk again soon.
Amituofo!
dinsdag 23 juni 2015
23th of June : Knee surgery
Today's stats:
Amituofo!
First some errata of all my previous post:
I was under the assumption that patella was English for meniscus.
I just found out that this is not true, the knee cap is the patella...
I never had problems (or thought I had) on the patella, it was always the meniscus I suspected. Just so you know.
Today was surgery day... I have to admit that I was super nervous for the past couple of days, and I did not get to much sleep.
Today was an adventure on it's own... although it was very exiting, lying on a bed, being transported to the operating room, getting a needle and sedative stabbed in your spinal cord, and watching a video screen where you see a doctor cutting and removing parts in your knee.... although all that, I have to say that it was all over before I could blink an eye. The surgery went OK. My knee is relatively ok, no damage to the ligaments, no damage to the condyles. Just the meniscus that is busted up a bit. They had to cut a way some parts but that was the best scenario, so I am lucky.
Now I will just have to endure a couple of days of pain, and then recovery can start. (Yeah! back to moving my lazy body again!)
So I hope to be able to join our last Kung Fu training on Friday! Even if I can just do some stretching and qi gong, that would be great!
Amituofo and a good evening!
- Weight: 80.6kg
- Training location : euhhh... Hospital Gelderse Vallei Ede
- Duration: 0h20m + 3 hours cooling down ;P
- Intensity: Bone crushing ;)
Amituofo!
First some errata of all my previous post:
I was under the assumption that patella was English for meniscus.
I just found out that this is not true, the knee cap is the patella...
I never had problems (or thought I had) on the patella, it was always the meniscus I suspected. Just so you know.
Today was surgery day... I have to admit that I was super nervous for the past couple of days, and I did not get to much sleep.
Today was an adventure on it's own... although it was very exiting, lying on a bed, being transported to the operating room, getting a needle and sedative stabbed in your spinal cord, and watching a video screen where you see a doctor cutting and removing parts in your knee.... although all that, I have to say that it was all over before I could blink an eye. The surgery went OK. My knee is relatively ok, no damage to the ligaments, no damage to the condyles. Just the meniscus that is busted up a bit. They had to cut a way some parts but that was the best scenario, so I am lucky.
Now I will just have to endure a couple of days of pain, and then recovery can start. (Yeah! back to moving my lazy body again!)
So I hope to be able to join our last Kung Fu training on Friday! Even if I can just do some stretching and qi gong, that would be great!
Amituofo and a good evening!
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