The Body Shop – The Lasting Impact of... Impacts

[MadMax]

I've now completed my 2 weeks post-op, and cleared infection protocols after my hip replacement surgery back on August 24th. I feel fantastic, all things considered. I'm incredibly grateful at how effective and efficient the surgical team has been. And yes, I should have had this sooner. I'm not quite up to "running speed", and I have to retrain my footwork to do drop steps and shuffles routinely and stable-y, but I no longer have the shooting pains in my left rump, nor the restrictive pain in my left groin. The hitch in my stride is gone. 

With that said... with me lumbering around for the past 2-3 years, my right knee has been overworked in trying to compensate. Over this past year, it has been exhibiting a burning sensation at the top of the knee – not behind the kneecap, this is important – but just above... at the base of the thigh muscle. This begins and intensifies as my knee is bent while sitting, especially when I'm driving, ie. working the gas pedal and brakes on my vehicle. These past two summers, I've had to do extensive driving in my umpiring role, and I chalked up this irritation to my knee, again, compensating for the degenerate left hip. I couldn't take much in the way of painkillers for the past year because I was on a prescription-only anti-inflammatory, allowing me to actually move around (somewhat) and officiate prior to this hip replacement. Well, now with the hip replaced, and being imaged, I finally piped up and inquired about the surgical team examining this nagging knee... 

My brother (he's my "interface" surgeon; I interact with him the most, it's his practice that I consult, but he cannot perform surgeries on me) bet it was tendonitis. My direct surgeon, who also does knee work, was a bit more skeptical, and had the imaging team run a full set of images... and I awaited... 

Turns out my knee is structurally fine. No damage to bones, no loss of cartilage, no displaced or partially torn tendons, and from physical examination, nothing to indicate any damaged ligaments. However... 
... a cluster of calcifications, like peanuts in a chocolate-peanut cluster, showed up on X-rays, floating around at the top of my knee / base of the thigh muscle. Huh! The team was wondering how I might have got those... trauma, perhaps? 

Oh, something like this? ->

That's 2020. I've had, maybe, 2-3 equally nasty ones on that right thigh – one in 2021 that nearly put me on the shelf for a few weeks – in the time since. My surgeon surmised it simply, "That'll do it. That bruising never went beyond your knee, did it? Not down into your calf?"
"No, it never got that far." 
"And how long on each impact would you wait to go back to umpiring?" 
"'Wait'? There's no waiting. I would likely have a game on the bases the next day. No rest or days off for us in season." 
"And how is your typical stance again?", as I show him the manual-prescribed, school-taught hands-on-knees stance. "See where your hands are? Is that where you typically place them?" 
"Yup. Haven't been able to vary it much. Just habit." 
"And that's where you'd say the burning pain is, right?" 
I look down at my hands upon my knee-tops, "You're telling me that that bruising drained down to my knees, and calcified because I put hand pressure on it so often?" 
"That would explain it, yes. You've taken deep tissue trauma on par with getting shot, or being in a car accident. The muscle fibers are traumatized and saturated with fluid that holds platelets and calcium in it. So you've got a cluster of calcified tissue there that is pressing against nerves. There's not much we can do about it surgically or medically. It's going to come down to either building up the tissues so that there isn't so much pressure on the nerves, or through therapy, massaging or pressing out those calcium deposits, like mashing up corn flakes over time." 

So yes!... don't think those thigh and forearm shots you take, unprotected, aren't going to cause you any long-term effects. They most certainly do! As such, I am done with taking shots off my thighs, and am now invested into @concertman1971's ThighPro venture. I won't be secretive about it – I'll be pressing colleagues to develop forearm protectors as well. In the amateur, un-televised game, I don't care anymore about "the look". If you feel safer and more protected by wearing a set of sleeves with armor/padding inserts on them, and that's going to be the difference between a broken forearm and your arm in a cast for 6 weeks versus just a welt that could use some ice post-game... I'll take the derisive comments. 

Hey, you're not the one standing back there with an erratic pitcher, a haphazard batter, and a guessing catcher. I am! And, I've got 2 other employments that I need my legs/arms for! 

Take care of, and try to lessen those impacts, guys!

[The Man in Blue]

Another reason to never go actual  HOK!   😋

[Velho]

On 9/8/2023 at 8:43 PM, MadMax said:

So yes!... don't think those thigh and forearm shots you take, unprotected, aren't going to cause you any long-term effects. They most certainly do! As such, I am done with taking shots off my thighs, and am now invested into @concertman1971's ThighPro venture.

Ordered. Start your commission count @MadMax

[834k3r]

On 9/8/2023 at 8:43 PM, MadMax said:

There's not much we can do about it surgically or medically. It's going to come down to either building up the tissues so that there isn't so much pressure on the nerves, or through therapy, massaging or pressing out those calcium deposits, like mashing up corn flakes over time." 

My daughter (a massage therapist) would agree with the massage treatment.