Cheetah Mom

Last May marked the approximate one-year anniversary of a knee problem--Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (PFPS), my doctor labelled it, when I saw her in November of 2014.  I think it might have been caused by a combination of my very big five-year-old slamming his body down on my knee on a regular basis (sitting down forcefully on it, in other words), and my constant ascent/descent of the stairway in our house, at least twenty times a day.  

My doctor demonstrated one very feeble exercise I could try to treat this condition, swinging her leg slowly back and forth about 24 inches.  This did absolutely nothing for me.  I researched the condition online, and found some very useful exercises at the Kaiser web site, a series of four moves which, when I tried them, did seem to help ease the pain to some degree.

For several months after that, I would do the exercises for a few days, then drop them, then pick them up again for another few days, then forget about them for a week.  I wasn't taking them very seriously, and (surprise surprise) my knee wasn't improving.  The pain would subside, then for no apparent reason, flare up--moderate pain, not excruciating, but bad enough that I couldn't run without feeling pain with every step of my left leg; stairs were also difficult for me.

Finally, last May, something in me snapped.  Would I live like this for the rest of my life?  How could I hope to remain healthy if I couldn't exercise?  My body felt horrible and I was always tired.

I decided to exercise at least 25 minutes a day, every single day, without fail, for at least a year.  I decided one day--in tears, feeling nearly hopeless.  "Well if it's going to hurt with every other step I take, I just don't care; I'm still going jogging today."  And it did hurt, those first few runs.  Every other step.  But the encouraging part was--after I'd jogged about five times, the pain would subside during the run, about halfway into it.

I didn't jog every day.  That would have been crazy...the stress on my knee would have caused further injury; of that I have little doubt.  I ran about twice a week, and on the other days, I swam, biked or walked.  All at a slow-to-moderate pace.  I also did yoga, the knee exercises, and free weights; about five minutes' worth of each, every day.

About a month into it, I announced to my husband that I was going to do a triathlon sometime in the near future.  I've always loved all three components of the triathlon:  swimming, biking, jogging; I want to see how it feels to do all three in a race.  I have no illusions of greatness--I'm much too slow for that.  My swimming is pretty good, but not stellar; ditto for my biking; and my running times are god-awful.

But none of that matters; I want to do a triathlon, with a smile on my face at least half the time; I want to have fun with it.

I've selected what seems like a good sprint triathlon for beginners, the Marin County Triathlon, held November 7-8 in San Rafael.

Having made up my mind to do it, I've started training for it--training hard sometimes--and after three months, I'm happy to say that my knee is doing much, much better.  And (nice side benefit) I feel healthy in a way that I haven't felt since my son was born.

Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome is one of the most poorly-understood joint conditions I've ever heard about or read about.  They know what it is, more or less--the back of the kneecap rubbing against the thighbone, an absence of sufficient cartilage in that area--but there is no clear understanding in the medical community about how to treat it (as evidenced by my own doctor).

My own unscientific experiment has convinced me, however, that exercise, even vigorous at times, has a wonderful effect on this condition.  I've read somewhere that exercising the knee can actually build cartilage, and therefore aids in healing PFPS.  I certainly hope it's true; and judging from the much-reduced, nearly-nonexistent pain in my knee, even when climbing stairs or jogging 3 miles, I am growing more and more convinced that this has happened for me.

My regular exercise routine has had a beneficial effect on my child as well; he is suddenly interested in running a road race.  Starting two weeks ago, we've gone jog-walking at least three times a week.  I wish it were a little less walking, a little more jogging--but it's a start.

Instead of a tiger mom, I aspire to become a cheetah mom.  I want to move fast and well, and teach my son to move fast and well--in every domain that interests him.  Not because I want him to win; I just want him to see how fun life can be when you can move that way.