I would love to get any advice from the docs on this issue. Thanks for your consideration!
I turned 50 this January and started acclimating my body to barefoot around the same time by hiking some of the surrounding area barefoot (So Cal). I had run for almost 20 years but had to stop because of foot pain. My feet are also pretty flat from the shoes all these years, so I was excited to see a path forward to strengthening the feet and hopefully running again. I started with just walking about ten minutes and then slowly adding more time. By March, I was at almost an hour and was starting to intersperse short bouts of running. Mostly, the trails I was using were a mix of a few rocks and then sometimes just dirt. I was really enjoying the process and excited to continue progressing.
By late March, I decided to hike a couple of trails with more stones to get more acclimated to walking on them. I did not run on them, just walked across a couple of sections of stones. I was really focusing on bending my knees more and trying to relax to get used to the stones. However, after spending about 30 minutes on a trail, it was a little more painful so I headed back down. I could feel something with my knees though and decided to take a break for a little bit. I kept it light for a couple of weeks to ease up on the knees, but then decided to go really slow across a level path with some stones mixed in. Whatever was wrong with my right knee then became worse and then my left knee also started acting up. I stopped doing trails entirely and couldn't really do my exercise bike anymore either as it seemed like my knees were worse after.
After more than a month since the initial issue, my right knee is still swollen with fluid. At times I get up and I can feel fluid trickling down the inside of my leg. My left knee has some discomfort in the front of it and just doesn't feel quite right. I usually feel a little pain, mostly in my right knee but lightly on the left when I am going up and down stairs. I saw a nurse practitioner last week and she checked my flexibility and movement in my right knee and it seems normal. She recommended the RICE method with ibuprofen. Because it has been a while, she also ordered an ultrasound to look at my knee (which is coming up on Tuesday). I have also been doing some exercises specifically for knee issues from a book called Pain Free by Pete Egoscue. At one point in the month, it really seemed to help a lot which was why I gave the rocks a second try very slowly (but it still did me in).
I don't know what I did to my knees, I have not had a history of knee problems recently, but I did have a torn meniscus surgery done about 10 years ago on my left knee. I am normally very active at least on the exercise bike, but I have had to stop everything. Even walking the dog around the block at this point is a little much for the knees it seems; its depressing. Anyway, would love to hear if anyone has had any similar experiences or counsel for something like this. I am convinced that barefoot is the way to go and I still want to pursue it, but I am down for the count at the moment. Thanks for listening.
~Paul
I turned 50 this January and started acclimating my body to barefoot around the same time by hiking some of the surrounding area barefoot (So Cal). I had run for almost 20 years but had to stop because of foot pain. My feet are also pretty flat from the shoes all these years, so I was excited to see a path forward to strengthening the feet and hopefully running again. I started with just walking about ten minutes and then slowly adding more time. By March, I was at almost an hour and was starting to intersperse short bouts of running. Mostly, the trails I was using were a mix of a few rocks and then sometimes just dirt. I was really enjoying the process and excited to continue progressing.
By late March, I decided to hike a couple of trails with more stones to get more acclimated to walking on them. I did not run on them, just walked across a couple of sections of stones. I was really focusing on bending my knees more and trying to relax to get used to the stones. However, after spending about 30 minutes on a trail, it was a little more painful so I headed back down. I could feel something with my knees though and decided to take a break for a little bit. I kept it light for a couple of weeks to ease up on the knees, but then decided to go really slow across a level path with some stones mixed in. Whatever was wrong with my right knee then became worse and then my left knee also started acting up. I stopped doing trails entirely and couldn't really do my exercise bike anymore either as it seemed like my knees were worse after.
After more than a month since the initial issue, my right knee is still swollen with fluid. At times I get up and I can feel fluid trickling down the inside of my leg. My left knee has some discomfort in the front of it and just doesn't feel quite right. I usually feel a little pain, mostly in my right knee but lightly on the left when I am going up and down stairs. I saw a nurse practitioner last week and she checked my flexibility and movement in my right knee and it seems normal. She recommended the RICE method with ibuprofen. Because it has been a while, she also ordered an ultrasound to look at my knee (which is coming up on Tuesday). I have also been doing some exercises specifically for knee issues from a book called Pain Free by Pete Egoscue. At one point in the month, it really seemed to help a lot which was why I gave the rocks a second try very slowly (but it still did me in).
I don't know what I did to my knees, I have not had a history of knee problems recently, but I did have a torn meniscus surgery done about 10 years ago on my left knee. I am normally very active at least on the exercise bike, but I have had to stop everything. Even walking the dog around the block at this point is a little much for the knees it seems; its depressing. Anyway, would love to hear if anyone has had any similar experiences or counsel for something like this. I am convinced that barefoot is the way to go and I still want to pursue it, but I am down for the count at the moment. Thanks for listening.
~Paul
