By: Craig Vernon
Used with permission.
Craig Vernon has completed 3 ironman triathlons after a high
femoral
osteotomy due to osteoarthritis of the hip. He will represent
Australia,
for the second time, at the World Xterra Championships in
Maui in October
2003.
Article Written in 2001
Does this sound familiar? Maybe it's true. Maybe you are
mad or perhaps very stubborn. Stopping would be too easy.
Give it all away, stop training, sleep in of a morning. Have
breakfast and read the newspaper, gain a little or a lot of
weight and live happily for ever after. It sounds like a bit
of a fairytale, doesn't it? We train and compete because it
is in our blood. Energetic individuals need to release the
energy that they seem to have, and sport is one good way of
doing this. I can recall when I was younger that one of my
good friends, Craig Chopping, would always accuse me of being
too active. This was during my teens and twenties when all
I did was surf. If the surf was good I would surf up to 4
times a day. I would surf until I dropped. Those were good
days. Anyway, I had no other sport at that time and if the
surf was no good I would start to go stir crazy as I had all
this nervous energy being stored up. A fortnight into a "wave
drought" you would see the die hards pounce on anything
over 12" and then the only other outlets were night time
activities which involved imbibing quantities of substances
that were sure to accelerate dementia. As you can see, if
you didn't find good ways of using this energy, bad ways could
be found. If this sounds like you. That is, after not training
for a while you start to go crazy then the question is not
are you mad, but do you really have a choice?
Your doctor has probably given you the "stop
everything" instructions, especially if you have arthritis
in either your hips or knees. This is hardly a satisfactory
solution, although it is probably the best advice from the
point of view of preventing further wear and tear on the affected
joint. It also probably takes into consideration the professional
liability that your doctor might attract if he advised you
otherwise (don't take this too cynically, I'd advise the same
if I were in the same position). What this view doesn't take
into proper consideration are all the other factors of your
life and your goals, the things from which you derive pleasure,
or what gives you the quality of life that you are seeking.
Only you can decide that for yourself. For example, I had
to make a choice between whether it is worth risking aggravating
the arthritis in my hip and completing the goal of becoming
an ironman. I took the risk and I feel that there has been
little deterioration as a result and I achieved my dream,
but I made the decision that if I did cause deterioration
and I needed a hip replacement or worse yet, ended up in a
wheel chair, it would have been worth it. So if you are going
to be stubborn about this then you'd better aquaint yourself
with the risks, so that you make a properly informed choice
and when it comes time to pay the price there are no disillusions
about the maximum cost. The gain should have been worth it.
If you are looking at it any other way, then turn back now.
The purpose of cycotec is to help you manage
your arthritis and maybe prevent it from becoming a disability.
There are a range of options. I'll start with the easiest.
1. change the way you train
2. medical and nutritional supplements
3. equipment changes
4. change sports
5. surgery
6. give up, go back to university and do a masters or Ph.D
I have ordered these along the lines of cheapest first although
the cost of the various options may vary and other personal
preferences may prioritise this list differently, after all
we are all different. I will discuss these options in more
detail below.
Change
the Way You Train
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