Healing a Leg to Help Fix a Knee
A Lesson in Healing
For a number of months now my right leg has been bothering me. Specifically, it presented itself as a tightness in my right thigh running down the outside of the leg along the iliotibial (IT) band, as well as a soreness on the outer (lateral) side of the knee. This area has been the source of symptoms before. I wrote about them in my book, toward the end in a section called “Learning to Walk Again,” where I shared a challenging episode that happened about 6 or 7 years ago. At the time, these IT band symptoms responded well to yoga and physiotherapy and pretty much went away. This time, though, none of the remedies that worked back then have been working as effectively and, while the pain and discomfort have been coming and going, the overall direction has been getting worse. This prompted me to seek alternative explanations and means of treatment. I needed to expand my health toolbox.
I have now found out, by way of an MRI scan, that I have the beginnings of osteoarthritis on the outside of that knee, along with a torn meniscus, which was diagnosed back then, and some knee cartilage wear that was not present earlier. My sports doctor, who is not a big fan of interventionist medicine and believes most sports injuries and similar issues can be healed by strength and physiotherapy, has offered me the option of giving me cortisone or hyaluronic acid (HA) injections to reduce the inflammation and alleviate the pain. (HA is a synthetic version of a naturally occurring substance found in joint fluid.) He also said that further strengthening might help and that prolonging any significant or invasive treatment and trying to come to terms with it on my own are probably the right path.
I am considering the shots and will probably get another opinion about them. But given that my regular practices are not really affected by the condition, other than occasional discomfort or pain that is momentary and not persistent or achy, I probably will keep on doing what I do and work at healing and strengthening my entire leg (with a focus on the IT band) and the knee.
My Own Story
Problems like this have history. In my case, the problem dates back to how I was using my leg, which contributed to this issue, and the ongoing wear and tear has made it worse. Specifically, there is a correlation between the high arches I have in my feet and how I walk. Because of the high arches and the orthotics I sometimes wear, I have always tended to walk on the outside of my feet. This is probably why my problem presented itself on the lateral side of my leg instead of the inner (medial) side. While it’s not a cure, I have found that consciously walking with my weight on the inner side of my feet, with an emphasis on putting weight on my big toes, helps to cushion and relieve pressure on the outside of my legs and knees. Likewise, when doing strengthening exercises such as leg presses it helps when I put a block between my knees and squeeze inward. This exercise feels much more uncomfortable when my knees are splayed outward.
Everything is connected, and my feet are not solely to blame. On the other end of my leg from my feet, I’ve always had a tightness in my right hip that I’ve used yoga and strengthening to alleviate. I have gotten some remedial yoga poses from my friend a yoga teacher, Nikki Costello, to help with that hip area. I am hoping the combination of realigning the hip; walking with my weight more balanced on the inside of my foot; strengthening the knee area with squats, leg presses, and yoga; and doing some additional stretching will relieve the pressure that has been making the knee area worse.
Body Parts Don’t Function on Their Own
We face lots of conditions like this as we get older. I’m grateful that, at 75, this is all that is wrong with me. I know lots of people who are challenged with much more serious joint and health issues that require medical treatment. I am writing this to share my version of how I am dealing with my issue, and particularly how I am trying to heal it naturally and avoid significant medical treatment for as long as possible.
Body parts don’t move on their own. They are part of the whole moving body, and the knee is a crucial moving part of the leg, which has a bigger range of motion. We need to look at the motion of the entire area in order to diagnose and address what is happening to a specific joint or part. As much as modern medicine would like us to think that fixing a specific joint or problem will make all symptoms disappear, this is not often the case.
As I’ve written about before, yoga and whole body strengthening exercises are both great ways to make sure you are using your body in whole coordinated movements as it was evolved to.
Attitude Is an Important Factor
This is not always smooth sailing. Staying positive about my leg getting better, or at least maintaining itself, requires me to be honest about my age and some of the inevitable pitfalls of getting older. When I heard the word “osteoarthritis” I winced a bit as it made its way to a vulnerable place inside me. This is part of the challenge of these years of doing whatever I can to preserve the health and function I am so fond of. Resisting the “I’m just getting old” meme, with its “giving up” mantra, is as important as staying focused on healing and deciding on what treatment to get.
What will I do? I may end up getting one or more injections to calm down my knee so I don’t feel it as much. I may even one day need an artificial knee if the osteoarthritis advances past a critical point. For now, and while the condition doesn’t hinder my gym exercises or most other movement practices, I prefer to do things the old-fashioned way, the natural way. I will let my body, my instincts, my trusted advice givers, and the widest array of information I can find guide me to trust and follow the understanding and healing that lives within all of us. My health toolbox is one of the recipients of all this work, and who knows what else I will learn along the way. Most of all, this healing path keeps me moving, head to toe, which is one of the pillars of my later-life health practice and one that I am determined to practice for as long as I can.
