I thought I would document my recent road to recovery from knee surgery and hope it helps anyone going through the same.
It all started when I was growing up, I think I was born with my knee cap out of alignment, having a few issues when I was younger from always walking the outside of my shoes down to being picked up as having knock knees and bow legs as well as clicky hips! All was good until I was playing squash at 16 and my first big twist happened when my knee dislocated. After healing, I carried on at school with hockey, netball and cross country. When I left school I used to go to the gym most days and after moving to London in my early 20s, I began taking part in Triathlon.
Phil and I took over the shop in 2003 and we became mountain and road cyclists as well as keeping fit in the gym, swimming and running. I twisted again in my 20s coming down from running at the Beacon and again in my 30s when I was jumping over a stream on the fell. In amongst these knock backs I ran several marathons and half marathons, took part in 6 Ironman events as well as a number of local ones. My last Ironman was a half distance in 2024 and I ended up power walking the run element because of my knee. After that, I gave up running but continued to enjoy the gym, swimming mainly outdoors in my favourite place - Ullswater as well as loads of cycling, mainly with friends on the shop rides.
At the end of 2024 and into 2025 I started to suffer pain when cycling, any pressure on climbing resulted in a nasty click as well as quite a bit of discomfort. That was when I knew enough was enough! I know I'm no a Spring Chicken, but I'm certainly not ready to hobble into old age! I went to see Jemma at Absolute Physio and she said if she was unable to help me in 12 weeks, intervention would be the only option. 8 weeks in we both admitted defeat and I was referred to a specialist. Mr Elson did the surgery for me at the end of September 2025.
This is me a couple of hours after surgery, waiting to be allowed to go home!
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