Ironsurgery - Knee Surgery The Ironman Way

A friend and co-worker of mine had knee surgery Friday, so I was planning on writing a post about knee pain and injuries.  I’ve had one serious knee injury (torn semimembranosus tendon) and plenty of aches and pains, but I’ve managed to train the past few years injury free so I thought I’d go into details on that and what helps me avoid injuries.  But a good blog has pictures, so I needed a picture, and surgery pictures can be a little gruesome so I asked Courtney to draw a picture of Dave having knee surgery:

Oh wow. 

I think I know Dave’s problem.  He’s seeing a green doctor.   Seriously, Dave, I know being ‘green’ is a big thing these days, but there’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed.  Buy a ‘green’ car, but don’t go see a green doctor (notice green wasn’t in quotes for the doctor because he’s literally green – see picture).  Our insurance is better than that.

Green doc aside, I couldn’t quite figure the picture out.  Why is Dave’s doctor doing surgery on the run?  I get that it’s the ‘Ironman Way,’ but that would make Dave’s doc more of an Ironman than Dave (maybe green people have phenomenal endurance, I don’t know).  Then it occurred to me, Dave isn’t actually outside riding his bike.  Courtney forgot a few very important details:

Much better.  He’s in his basement on the trainer.  Don’t worry, that’s an aero helmet on his head – otherwise the doctor would be operating on that big, pointy head.  Or at least I hope so. 

I need to point out one more thing about this picture:

Dave’s bike is a serious piece of shit.  I don’t know what’s going on with that thing.  It appears to have two top tubes.  One that’s really straight and one curvy, wrinkly one that doesn’t really connect to anything (except perhaps the rear tire, which is another problem all on its own).  And I don’t see a headtube at all.  I’m not sure this bike is structurally sound.  This explains the knee problems.  Well, this and the green doctor.

So I guess I’ll go into my knee pain theories and strengthening exercises another time. 

I warned you: surgery pictures are gruesome.

[sidenote: Dave’s surgery went really well.  He won’t be able to run for about 5 weeks, but his knee should be good to go once it heals and hopefully this won’t completely derail his season and he’ll be able to do a few late-season races.]