Hi all,
It's been 4 or so months since I last posted so I thought I would do a quick update.
I took three weeks off over Christmas. I went away to the beach with the family, got out and about heaps etc. My knee was feeling so good and it was surprising for how much activity I was doing. After the break I returned to my office job where I was mostly working from home. Within 2 days my knee was feeling crappy again, the same achy pain after a long day of sitting. I was trying to keep the movement up with regular walks, standing etc but the reality was that I needed to sit for long periods for my work.
Long story short, I decided to quit my job. Not just because of my knee, I was generally pretty unhappy with it, but the Christmas break just got me wondering if I was to just get up and about more would my knee improve.
I ended up taking a job at my local university as a tutor and I also made the decision to work at the Fringe festival we have here in Adelaide. It's a month long arts festival second only to the Edinburgh Fringe. It was a bartending job which would require me to be on my feet for many hours at a time.
I knew I'd be OK at uni as its just a little bit of walking but the Fringe I had my doubts about and I was very worried about it. The first night was bad, my knee hurt really bad and I was thinking about pulling the pin. I thought I was just going to be in the bar but I needed to serve drinks in venues, run stock from bar to bar etc, go around and pick up glasses/rubbish. To my surprise, I woke up the next morning and my knee felt OK. The second night was a bit better but it was still quite sore, again I woke up the next morning feeling pretty good. It seemed that as the festival went on, my knee just felt better and better. I was able to do longer and longer shifts and just got more and more confident on it. One of the days I did close to 25000 steps as I did a 4 hour stint at uni, a 9 hour shift at the fringe and then went out after for some drinks. The next day I woke up and it was feeling great.
I really couldn't believe I was up and about and spending so much time on my feet. I hadn't done this in over 2 years. Over that month I definitely put muscle on in my legs - my mum commented saying she could notice a difference.
When the fringe finished, I continued with my uni job. I did notice that about 2 weeks after the fringe finished, my knee was not feeling 100% anymore but it wasn't too bad. I was still up and about at university and not sitting for very long periods.
So basically I think that sitting down for long periods was really killing my knee. Even though I was trying to stay active while working an office job, I just couldn't offset the sitting that I could not avoid. I am thinking about looking for a job at a local craft brewery/taproom, one to add some income as I've taken a pretty significant hit to my personal income, but also keep the knee moving and see even more improvements.
As a bit of a side note, some friends are going to the snow this year and I think I am going to go. My knee has improved but is no where near perfect. I have been on a couple of small jogs but definitely could not play sport etc. I want to give snowboarding a go (I have done it many times previously so wont be falling off every 2 seconds). I just have a feeling my knee will be OK but obviously have some doubts. I hope I am not making a terrible decision going
I'll post again in a few months, maybe after the snow trip.
Ryan
