If you’ve been missing your regular dose of RockAroundTheWorld, I can assure you I’ve been missing it more! Here’s what I’ve been up to (or rather haven’t been up to!)
WARNING – this post contains no actual climbing. If you’re at all squeamish you might want to skip this post and come back in a few weeks!
I’ve had a dodgy ankle for about 5 years – just a mithering twinge to start with, which finally put a stop to my running about 3 years ago. A bit of a loss – despite protestations that I’m a climber not a runner, I did like the occasional jog (nothing beats it for a good cardio workout; you can do it in the dreich; and anyway, you can’t climb every day).
About the same time, it started to interfere with my climbing – a “now you see it, now you don’t” niggle that would make itself known at inconvenient moments (that high rock over, 10ft above the last bit of gear, or the smear you need for the long reach to the break). All a bit sapping to the psyche, and as these inconvenient moments became more frequent I started to look into options.
Kudos to the NHS, my random walk through the process of GP, X-ray, physio referral, MRI, Surgeon referral and finally an op might have taken a couple of years, but that’s largely been self-inflicted. Serves me right for spending half the time out of the country. The final discussion with the surgeon reminded me of the chat with the MoT technician when you take in your ageing rust-bucket: a pained expression, sucking air through the teeth, as they reel off a long list of issues – mandatory and advisory – the cumulative damage of a lot of mileage on the clock combined with a few minor prangs. This followed by a change in demeanour and then a cheery prognosis: We won’t really know what we can do until we get in to have a look, but I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to sort you out.
The guy delivering the news was Mr Smith, and he’s the bloke who looks after Man City’s ankles. I figured I was in good hands, and it wasn’t going to magically get better of its own accord, so I signed on the dotted line. I went in for my ankle arthroscopy a couple of weeks ago – hence the radio silence.
This is a keyhole procedure – a couple of tiny slits at the front of the ankle allow a mind-boggling array of gadgets to be inserted into the joint: a balloon to separate the joint and give a bit of elbow room; a camera to have a good shufty, various broddling instruments to get rid of all the humps and bumps; and a hoover to clean out the crud. So far, so amazing, but it’s pretty routine stuff (well it is for the bloke who looks after the ankles of £50m footballers anyway!)
When I came around from the general anaesthetic I learned that, as well as the usual “broddle and clean up”, Mr Smith had also been able to do a cartilage regeneration graft. This had been potentially on the cards, but would depend on “what we find when we get in there“, so I hadn’t really paid too much attention. A bonus feature! Turns out this is a (b)leading-edge technique. Squeamish readers might want to skip this bit:
The AutoCart™ procedure is a minimally invasive, single-stage cartilage regeneration technique that harvests, minces, and reimplants a patient’s own healthy cartilage to repair joint damage.
How the Procedure Works:
Harvesting: During an arthroscopic (keyhole) surgery, a surgeon uses a special device (such as the GraftNet™ collector) to shave and collect tiny, healthy cartilage chips from non-weight-bearing areas of your joint.
Preparation: The harvested cartilage is minced and mixed with an extracellular matrix (like BioCartilage®) and Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) to create a highly biological, cell-rich paste.
Implantation: The prepared graft is injected directly into the cleaned, damaged defect site.
Sealing: The mixture is secured in the defect using an autologous biological “glue” (e.g., Thrombinator™ serum) that is derived from the patient’s own blood.
Wow! Sounds amazing! The only downside is that the magic mixture of cells and special sauce needs a bit of time to grow and is quite fragile in the meantime, meaning it needs to be immobilised, hence the blog post title – I’m non-weight-bearing for 4 to 6 weeks in a Storm Trooper style protective boot. Beyond that, it’s a steady-as-she-goes rehab journey, with a return to running in 6 to 18 months and an indeterminate amount of time to climbing (unsurprisingly, they haven’t done many!)
I’ve been a bit caught out by the rehab regime – a victim of my default glass-half-full (usually overflowing) outlook – so I’ve been in a bit of a sulk. Over-ambitious plans for the summer have had to be put on hold and I’ve finally come to the conclusion that I need to just suck it up and listen to Doctor’s orders. Writing this post is a way to remind myself just how lucky I am to have been offered this remarkable treatment, and all the faff and effort that has been expended on my past its best-before-date body. A few months out of action on the way to hopefully a few years of activity is very much a First World problem!
On the plus side, it’s given me loads of time on my hands (actually, mostly on my backside!) to catch up with BMC and CAC stuff.
It turns out that crutches are a complete pain in the arse (not to mention arms!) I’d like to think that I’d be somewhere in the upper end of people who’d be well adapted to using them, but I’ve found it really quite hard work. How the average punter manages, I’ve no idea! Added to that, you also lose the use of your arms!
A conversation with Esme, one of the GB Paraclimbing Team, put me onto the concept of a knee crutch. This is an absolute gamechanger. I’ve got my arms back and can now carry things, cook etc
Chairing the BMC Members’Council meeting at Plas y Brenin.
As I write, the dressing is off, and you can barely see the two tiny “keyholes”…
The Star Wars boot is still on, but I’m crossing fingers (not toes!) for my physio appointment on Friday. Hopefully I’ll be able to start some gentle rehab.
Meanwhile, I’ve dusted off the finger board to try to maintain a bit of upper body conditioning…
… though early experiments with actual climbing just prove how useful legs are…
Sadly, it might be a while before I’m back on the rock, which is a bit of a bummer as I’m due to be hosting Climbers from across the globe at the BMC International Meet in The Pass next week.
The Rucksack Club Gogarth Meet the following weekend is also likely to be a bit too soon, but “the show will go on” thanks to a band of helpers, and I’m looking forward to beer, BBQ, banter and bonfire on the beach.
Hopefully catch up with a bunch of you there (the more the merrier!) If you catch me feeling sorry for myself, please do administer a swift kick up the arse. I’m fully aware how lucky I am to be on the receiving end of some cutting edge treatment, and this brief time “in the shoes” of someone with limited mobility has been a real eye-opener to the challenges and to the tremendous resilience that people demonstrate. Humbling!
RockAroundTheWorld 