[pct-l] sharing my pain . . . .

[jjolson at uwyo.edu (Jeffrey J. Olson)]

In 1992, prior to my exposure to lightweight and ultralight hiking my 
girlfriend and I started off from just north of Lassen, heading south to 
end at Mt. Whitney, 750 miles and 75 days later.  My pack weighed in at 
72 pounds with ten days of food.  When I was hiking down to The Echo 
Lake Store the outside of my knee finally let me know walking was not 
something it wanted to do any longer.  We hitched down into South Lake 
Tahoe and I stopped in at a sports medicine clinic and a doctor saw me, 
and said a ligament on the outside of the knee was 
torn/distorted/stretched, and that I needed at least a week off the 
trail.  It was 300 miles and 30 days of carrying a 60 - 75 pound pack 
that killed me. 

Getting up off the examining table, I felt a little "tweak" in my lower 
back.  We walked from the doctor's office to a pizza parlor where my 
back slowly tightened up and with any movement sent screaming shards of 
raw pain through my whole body.  I lay on the pizza parlor bench for 
three hours, crawled out the door to the lawn bordering the strip mall, 
and lay there til dark.  Jane finally ordered a cab after I ate copious 
amounts of ibuprofen, enough I could get up and walk a bit.  I lay in 
bed for three days in a south lake tahoe motel while she partied with 
the party animals next door.  Weird to lie there in pain while she 
flirted and played and had fun.  But what was she going to do?

It took three months for the ACL to heal and six months for the back to 
finally heal.  I could be walking and suddenly get hit with a spasm that 
sent me straight to the floor, writhing in pain.  Work, shopping, at 
home - it didn't matter.  I'd be incapacitated for at least 15 minutes...

Jeff Olson
Laramie WY

Bighummel@aol.com wrote:

>About 6 months after a skiing accident in which I broke a thumb, I developed 
>a similar "trick" knee that increased in occurence and intensity until I had 
>to have it checked out.  I had tore cartiledge and when I stressed the knee in 
>just the right direction it wedged the tear into the joint and caused the 
>intense pain.  They did arthoscopic surgery and I just knew that my two great 
>passions; basketball and hiking, were probably over.   
>
>Nope.  The knee is strong as ever now, the only lingering pain from the 
>surgery was where the instruments went through the big muscle  on the inside of the 
>knee.  This pain lasted for about a year after before disappearing.  I now 
>play full court basketball and can hike as before without any knee problems.  
>
>However, I am genetically blessed and most likely (or perhaps hopefully) fall 
>into the same category as Marge.  
>
>They do amazing things with old knees these days.  Find several sources who 
>really know knees before allowing anyone to touch or prescribe anything to you. 
> 
>
>HYOH,
>
>Greg
>
>
>In a message dated 1/26/2005 5:18:27 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
>Slyatpct@aol.com writes:
>This non-hiking summer I developed a trick knee.
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