Project Unicorn - The Running Channel’s Quarantine To Qualifier

Project Unicorn - The Running Channel’s Quarantine To Qualifier

We’re delighted to be working with Anna from The Running Channel (if you’re a runner and you don’t follow The Running Channel you should!) on her challenge - ‘Project Unicorn’:

Hi everyone, I’m Anna and I’m a runner! I’ve been presenting on The Running Channel on YouTube for a couple of years now and I’m always up for a challenge. So far these have included (but are not limited to) a marathon in my 10m back garden during lockdown, running a mile every hour on the hour for 24 hours, a 260km ultra in the Azores plus a few other marathons along the way.

Anna Harding from The Running Channel, about to take on Project Unicorn.

Project Unicorn

My next challenge will be a little longer in the making. It’s a challenge we are affectionately calling ‘Project Unicorn’. My next challenge is to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

I’ll be training for the next few months up until Autumn 2021, when I’ll take on a marathon to get that time. For me, it’s 3 hours 30 mins. Well, it’ll be a few minutes under that actually to guarantee qualification. To give you an idea of what that means for me, my marathon PB, set at Amsterdam Marathon 2019 is 3:53:06. So just a casual 25ish minutes to shave off.

The BIG difference this time though, is that we’re treating this as a bit of an experiment. We’re building ‘Team Anna’ to get me to that finish line. We’ve put together the best of the best when it comes to a coach, sports psychologist and, of course, physiotherapist. Paul Martin is going to be an integral part of Team Anna - he’s already helped me with my first hurdle of injuring my calf on a rather overzealous speed session!

Training

The real training will start 16 weeks out from race day, which hasn’t been 100% set in stone yet because of the uncertainty with coronavirus, but it’ll be around May that I need to step it up a notch. Until then, it’s cross training on the bike for me, calf raises, Paul’s infamous glute circuit and a bit of core work to get me in top shape ready for the mileage to increase.

Watch this space over on YouTube for Paul’s first appearance in the Quarantine To Qualifier series in episode 2. You can find out more about the challenge in episode 1 now:

We are superchuffed to be part of Team Anna and we’re looking forward to following her journey to Boston!

Words by Anna Harding from The Running Channel.

Patient News: Alex Flynn - Certainly Uncertain

Patient News: Alex Flynn - Certainly Uncertain

Last year we announced that our patient, Alex Flynn, would take on the 4 Deserts Grand Slam Plus this year – racing 1,250km / 780 miles unsupported on foot across some of the most inhospitable landscapes in the world in the Namib Desert, Gobi Desert, the Great Caucasus of Georgia, the Atacama Desert and Antarctica - and that we’ll be supporting him in the lead up to this epic challenge.

Alex was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2008 at the age of 36. His diagnosis became the catalyst in his life for showing people the possibility of creating positive change in the face of adversity.

We asked Alex to write us an update on how things, including his training, are going, given the most recent turn of events.

Alex says:

I haven’t written for a while. Truth is I’ve been training for a race that may not happen.

Coronavirus has thrown everything in the air so to speak. Not only has it panicked many people and caused uncertainty across the world, it’s also made travel, insurance and racing in close proximity to others a game of Russian roulette.

I like things to be relatively certain. That’s why I like to train five times a week and take two days off. In typical Flynn style, my training graph would normally resemble the topography of K2; steep and unforgiving. I made this mistake in my past. Stress fractures and hotspots on my lower legs became frequent friends. Discussing this with Paul, I’ve managed to soften the curve of the graph by incorporating more cycling and cross-training into my regime. This is not just to obviate the risk of stress fractures but also cope with a changing physique that comes with being almost 50 years old.

So, training over the last few months has been a mixture of functional training with Gareth Batson at Cynergy PT, muddy trail and long road runs and cycling. In addition, I’ve spent time at the Park Club and have been working on my strength training with Quentin at the Engine House.

The result is that I’m stronger and fitter as well as benefiting me with fewer Parkinson’s symptoms. However, it’s not been without its aches and pains. Paul Martin has been amazing at managing my anxiety where I feel pain in my knee or ankle. He knows exactly the right thing to do. Paul helped me achieve my 10 millionmetres challenge and made it possible for me to #KeepMoving.  

I guess I will go with who I trust and know. After all, we are all looking for certainty.

Words by Alex Flynn. Images by 10MillionMetres.

Patient News: Wayne Collins' Ride To Rome Part 2

Patient News: Wayne Collins' Ride To Rome Part 2

Wayne Collins, one of our physio patients, recently cycled from London to Rome with his friends Alessandro, Dot and Aileen to raise money for two charities close to their hearts. The first is The Royal British Legion, specifically for their projects supporting Admiral Nurses who work with people (and their families who are often more affected) with Alzheimers, a disease that took Wayne’s father at an early age, and the courses that they run at the Battle Back Centre. The second charity is Demelza House, which is a hospice that provides respite care and end of life care for children with severe illnesses and life limiting conditions.

Wayne has very kindly blogged his experience for us in two parts – this is the second part - the actual ride. You can read the first part: the run up to the big event, here.

Our Ride To Rome!

And we were off!

We set off from the Coliseum Theatre in London early one Friday morning in late July.

Our first delay was the raising of Tower Bridge which in all my years of living and working in London I have never witnessed!

Our route out via Greenwich effectively ran alongside the A2 along some very rough sections of cycle paths to our first stop at Demelza House in Sittingbourne. Demelza is one of the two wonderful charities that we were raising money for. We received a very warm welcome and were fed with sandwiches and some lovely homemade cake to send us on our way to Dover.

First stop - at one of our charities, Demelza House.

The weather was kinder to us in the afternoon as we picked up the Via Francigena Pilgrimage route from Canterbury to Rome. We would crisscross this route many times over our 19 day adventure.

Unfortunately upon our arrival at Dover we soon realised that we would not be departing anytime soon! We loaded the bikes into the van ready to board the ferry and then spent the next 4.5 hours waiting to do so!

Through France

We arrived at our hotel in Paris at 1am in the morning and had to unload the contents of the support van into our rooms for security.

We were up again at 6am ready for Day 2, waking up to torrential rain that stayed with us for the whole day! Thankfully that was the only any like that which was a relief as it took the next two days for my shoes to dry out.

Luxurious accommodation in France - a stack of shipping containers as rooms

Over the next days we proceeded south through France largely following routes that we had driven during two recces in January and March. We encountered some road closures and subsequent diversions along the way just to keep us on our toes.

We cycled through some amazing scenery with the vineyards south of Reims being particularly impressive and memorable. We did our best to support the local farmers and agricultural economy along the way which meant we had to sample the local wines with dinner each night. It would have been very rude not to have done so!

Psychologically we had one of our hardest challenges ahead of us....the Alps!

Tackling The Alps!

Due to snow earlier in the year we had not been able to drive the Alpine passes so we really had no idea what laid ahead.

Please remember we are not club cyclists, purely amateur leisure cyclists with an average age the wrong side of 60.

As we approached the Alps we cycled down the entire Eastern side of Lake Annecy to Albertville, once the home of the Winter Olympics and not normally a place you would be cycling. Thankfully these days it’s the home of a state of the art cycle shop/repair centre and some very friendly generous staff.

We had now been cycling for 9 days averaging around 76 miles a day.

Day 10 was the “rest” day before we tackled the Alps. On this day we cycled the relatively short distance from Albertville to Beaufort to find ourselves sitting at the most amazing patisserie for breakfast whilst looking at the Ski Map across the road....are we insane? Should we really be in a ski resort on our bikes?

Beaufort the day before the Alps ascent

Time for some bike cleaning and maintenance before I, Alessandro and our driver Glyn headed up the Alpine climb to see what the next day would have I store for us. Last time Alessandro and I were there it was closed due to the snow.

It took us around 5 hours for me to drive the route and return.... not quite the rest day we had planned, however I am so pleased that we did drive the route. The ladies on the other hand enjoyed a lazy girlie day in the sun in Beaufort.

Alessandro spent many days planning the routes and then modifying them following our visits earlier in the year. We, the novice cyclists, clearly had not paid enough attention to his notes though! In order to cross the Alps by the “easiest” route it was not what we had imagined it would be, i.e. a long climb up and tricky steep decent down to Italy.

Oh No! It was a long 22km climb up to Cormet de Roseland which was part of this year’s Tour de France, albeit probably a little faster than us. This was followed by a steep decent down to Bourg St Maurice before a further 35km climb up to the Italian Border. We were definitely running on adrenaline on this day!

Part way up first climb over the Alps

This climb took us up over the Col du Petit Saint Bernard through the middle of La Rosiere Ski Resort. It felt very strange cycling under ski chair lifts and seeing signage relevant to being in a pair of skis, not on a bike!

Top of first alpine climb!

The steep difficult hairpin bend decent down into La Thuile in Italy at the end of that day was very tough as we were all so tired, however, we had made it over the Alps...what a relief!

And Then Italy

The next couple of days were down through Northern Italy where our choices of road through the steep sided valley were limited and the ride got even tougher in many ways with very, very bad road surfaces and heavy traffic including lots of trucks which were not that happy to see us.

Cycling through Italy was more challenging than our route through France with steeper climbs and more and more tired legs. The adrenaline rush of the Alps had left us and at times we really struggled. Tempers got a little frayed at times too, but we all stuck together and pushed each other to keep going.

The messages from home via our Facebook page from not only friends and family, but also from others who we did not know that had started following our challenge were very important to us and certainly kept us going.

1,000 miles in

Day 15 saw us reach the 1,000 mile mark! We were all very tired and whilst relieved to have made it that far, I don’t think it really started to sink in until we posted the pictures that evening and the messages from our supporters started to arrive.

Italy and 1,000 miles covered!

Day 15 saw us enter the beautiful region of Tuscany through which we carried on the next day. How different it looked in the blazing sun some 5 months after our drive along the route back in March. Still stunning, but so very different.

Energy levels were now very low, and even though Day 19 would see us reach Rome, we all struggled to remain in good spirits and to keep going at times. We had been blessed with overcast conditions through much of France, however we were paying the price now with temperatures in the upper 30s.

Day 19 and our final approach to Rome had a brief stop at the lake north of the City where the Pope has his Summer Residence.

And Finally, Rome!

Thankfully Rome itself was very quiet in August as it’s very hot and the residents and businesses were on holiday. There was a tiny amount of traffic compared with what had greeted us in March so we needn’t have worried so much.

Emotions were running high as we cycled first to the Vatican and then onto our final destination, the Colosseum.

At The Vatican

At The Colliseum

We Made It!

We had made it! 1,388 miles, averaging 76 miles a day, excluding the rest day at a mere 12 miles and we made it over the Alps without having to get off and walk!!

We did it!

What an adventure! One we will never forget and, thanks to our amazing sponsors, nearly £12,000 was raised for the Royal British Legion and Demelza House.

Words and images courtesy of Wayne Collins.

JUST AMAZING Wayne and team - well done!

Are you going on your own adventure and would like to share it with us? Send an email to us at info@physioremedies.com.

Patient News: Wayne Collins' Ride To Rome Part 1

Patient News: Wayne Collins' Ride To Rome Part 1

Wayne Collins, one of our physio patients, recently cycled from London to Rome with his friends Alessandro, Dot and Aileen to raise money for two charities close to their hearts. The first is The Royal British Legion, specifically for their projects supporting Admiral Nurses who work with people (and their families who are often more affected) with Alzheimers, a disease that took Wayne’s father at an early age, and the courses that they run at the Battle Back Centre. The second charity is Demelza House, which is a hospice that provides respite care and end of life care for children with severe illnesses and life limiting conditions.

Wayne has very kindly blogged his experience for us in two parts – this is the first: the run up to the big event.

Ride To Rome!

Having completed an amazing four day ride from London to Paris with the Royal British Legion in September 2018, I thought “where next?”!

“Why, London to Rome of course!”

It’s less than 1,400 miles. We can do it, of course we can! Dot, Aileen and I have only been cycling for a few years and the total of our ages is greater than 180 so we are no spring chickens and we are fairly slow.

Aileen and Dot agreed to join me in this latest crazy endeavour. Dot (we have not known each other that long) has since revealed that whilst she said yes she thought I was joking! She knows me better now. When I drove to France in January for four days to reccie the section of the route we had planned from Calais to the Alps she realised that I was serious and the event would take place!

Our Charities

During the ride from London to Paris I met some veterans who had received literally lifesaving help from the Royal British Legion, in particular through their Battle Back Centre. They are amazing, inspirational people. I have had, and still have and battle with to a degree, some major health challenges and problems in my life, but nothing compared with these people. I wanted to do more to help them.

The second charity, Demelza House, is an amazing organisation that has helped a close friend of mine, her severely disabled child and family in general for many years. Unlike many children’s hospices they focus on giving children and their families every possible opportunity and support during their lives. They make such an enormous difference daily to these families. Naturally they also provide outstanding end of life care too.

Logistics and Training

I enlisted the help of Alessandro Santangelo, an Italian Cycle guide that I had met on a cycling holiday a couple of years ago. Although our intention was to employ him, as we were raising money for these two amazing charities he only charged us for his expenses and not his time.

Alessandro planned the European mainland routes and we then drove them over two four days trips. This led to some adjustments and allowed us to identify our accommodation which we needed to book well in advance.

With regards to preparation we all cycled the Eden classic from the Eden Project in Cornwall.

Pasties after The Eden Classic.

Dot and Aileen are part of the HSBC UK Breeze cycle club in Cornwall. Breeze offers fun, free bike rides for women of all abilities across the UK. They cycle most Fridays, weather permitting, and obviously, being in Cornwall, they get a lot of hill training in!

Due to my work and other charity commitments I knew that if I was left to my devices regarding training I wouldn’t do enough to be able to survive the trip so in addition to training on my own I cycled the one day, 65 mile Poppy Ride for the Royal British Legion in May.

In June I then joined two friends for a cycle challenge/training down the Adriatic coast of Italy with Alessandro as our guide. In reality we spent very little time on the coast road as each day we came in land to view some stunning locations all of which seem to be at the top of long steep hills! We averaged around 60-70 miles a day.

Wayne and Alessandro at the end of our Adriatic training.

Shortly afterwards I followed up with the four day pedal from London to Ypres, a mere 320 miles, again with the Royal British Legion.

Ypres.

The final major training event for me was cycling the grand depart of the Tour de France one week ahead of the actual Ride To Rome. This event was raising money for prostate cancer. We suffered with extreme temperatures on the day and from a personal point of view, as I had never cycled 128 miles in one day before, it was an enormous challenge on many levels!

In addition to providing his guiding services and cycling every mile with us Allesandro also provided mechanical support whenever we had issues.

My pre-ride bike prep was generously provided by one of our sponsors, Pearson Cycles, who are still family owned and are the oldest bike shop in the UK. Next year they celebrate their 160th anniversary.

Our support van driver, daily fresh fruit and food buyer, water supply man and all round fantastic support was provided by Glyn who also volunteered his time free of charge for the whole trip and assisted with moving the van around in the build up to the event to help promote us and to have the stickers of our wonderful sponsors added. I don’t think he really knew what he was letting himself in for when he was “volunteered” by his wife and fellow cyclist Dot!

Provisioning for the Ride To Rome!

Tune in next month for Part 2 of Wayne’s blog post where he tells you just how much fun he had cycling from London to Rome!

If you’d like to make a donation The Ride To Rome donations page is still live and can be found here.

Words and images courtesy of Wayne Collins.

Are you going on your own adventure and would like to share it with us? Send an email to us at info@physioremedies.com.

Patient News: We're Supporting Extreme Adventurer Alex Flynn

Patient News: We're Supporting Extreme Adventurer Alex Flynn

We're excited to be supporting extreme adventurer Alex Flynn in his challenging new project happening later this year. More on that soon! Meanwhile we’ve asked Alex to introduce himself. Here’s his story so far:

About Me

Hi, my name is Alex and I’ve had Parkinson’s disease for 11 years now. I was diagnosed at the age 36. That’s young by most people standards but it isn’t. The youngest ever diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease was a two -year-old boy. I’ll let that just sink in for a second. Two years old! What kind of life is that little boy going to have?

About Parkinson’s

What is Parkinson’s? Most people don’t fully understand what it is. It’s about rigidity. The lack of being able to move. It’s not the over abundant movement of someone flailing around like an eight-legged octopus. No, that’s just over medication; the unfortunate side-effect of taking a daily cocktail of prescription drugs to mask the effects of dwindling dopamine in the brain over many years. The product of which will take away a persons’ ability to enjoy things that most people take for granted; the ability to write, to walk, speak, have sex, not to mention the psychological impact, and many more. The diagnosis of Parkinson’s hits hard.

Many people receiving such a colossal diagnosis give up, take the medication and slowly deteriorate. I had and still have no intention becoming a shadow of my former self and neither should anyone else. So what did I do?

#KeepMoving #10millionmetres

Well, I decided to #KeepMoving by taking on a challenge called 10 million metres. My intention was to traverse 10,000 km around the planet and only the events and challenges would contribute to the 10 million metre distance. There was no master plan other than to raise awareness of Parkinson’s disease and ultimately funds towards Parkinson’s research. That was in 2008. Between that decision and the present day so much has happened. Highlights include:

• Completing the gruelling Marathon des Sables (250 km race across the Sahara Desert);

• Running 160 miles across the Bavarian Alps in 52 hours;

• Running 1,457 miles from London to Rome in 30 days to meet the Pope (400 miles of which was run with a stress fractured right tibia and completing the first 20 marathons in 10 days);

• Becoming the first person to traverse the 3,256 miles from Santa Monica to New York using four distinct disciplines. I achieved this distance in 35 days and appeared on BBC One’s One show over two consecutive nights, raising awareness to over 10 million people worldwide and realising vital donations for charity.

• In 2013 I crossed 200km of the Amazon Jungle, climbed and ran 90 km of the Dolomites and 236 km across the Colorado Rockies, achieving all three within an eight-week period;

• On the 24th January 2014, the 10MillionMetres Challenge was completed at the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon.

I’d covered a distance more than 6,200 miles around the world!

And Then

In the summer of 2015, I entered the Men’s Health USA Ultimate Guy Competition, successfully reaching the final nine competitors out of over 1,000 including Special Forces and the US Marines. I was also honoured by the then UK Prime Minister, David Cameron.

2016 brought a new challenge of completing 5,566 press-ups in 22 days to raise funds and awareness of PTSD, which affects military personnel and first responders. This was extremely tough as each day the target to be achieved increased by 22 push-ups on top of that which had already been achieved the previous day. I managed to continue for 18 days reaching total of 3,762 press-ups before the right shoulder gave out.

In February 2017, I returned from the Arctic after attempting a 450 km expedition of Sweden’s Kungsleden (Kings trail) in freezing temperatures of -29°C. My participation was cut short due to ripping a tendon in my right ankle. Undeterred, I had to continue and pulled a 135lb pulk and 10kg backpack across a further 25km, including two mountain passes before the onset of hypothermia.

In 2018, I undertook the brutal and extremely challenging Lost Islands Ultra in Fiji. Two weeks after finishing the Fiji ultra, I completed the Virgin Money London Marathon, notwithstanding my medication failing to work after 10 miles and running the remaining distance with muscle cramps and pain. Lots of pain!

Last September was spent in British Columbia, Canada. I had flown there to take part in Primal Quest. As part of a team, which included five times world adventure racing Champion Mike Klosser, we took on the Primal Quest Pursuit Race. An event there would take us across 240 miles of mountainous and challenging terrain including glaciers, and white water rapids situated in big Bear country. The team completed the challenge in four days and five hours.

Next Challenge

None of the above come without impact on the body, whether caused by Parkinson’s or just bad luck. Primal Quest left me with whiplash after coming off my mountain bike a total of nine times while descending the second mountain stage. This is one of a long line of injuries I have had over the years which have been treated by Paul Martin at Physio Remedies. With Paul’s help, I intend to train harder than ever before for my forthcoming challenge this September where, as part of a team of four, I will take on the world’s toughest race.

Alex will be unveiling his next challenge very soon. Watch this space!

Words by Alex Flynn, image from Alex’s website.

Die Another Day PART 3: Total Hip Replacement - Ivan's Story

Forty-nine year old Physio Remedies total hip replacement (THR) patient Ivan describes how his knowledge of the modern day advances in hip replacement technology, famous sportsmen and women that had undergone THR surgery and the first class physiotherapy and referral advice he received from Sarah Lawson and Nick Smith of Physio Remedies enabled him to make the decision to have surgery early and start realising the benefits of doing so – PART 3, preparing for surgery, the operation, rehab and today’s update.

In Part 1 Ivan gave the background to his diagnosis, and in Part 2 Ivan talked through how he made his decision to have a total hip replacement (THR).

Preparing for surgery (Hint - Find a Buddy If You Can)

The date for my operation was set and I spent the preceding weeks preparing myself for what the immediate days after the operation would be like and also thinking through what my rehab plan would be like.

It is very personal choice as to how much information you want to know about any operation. For me though, I thought since I was going to have a new body part to keep me company hopefully for the rest of my life, I should find out at least what it was going to be. A visit to Professor Haddad’s clinic for my pre-assessment provided all the information I needed.

The femoral head (the round top of the hip bone) was to be cut off, shaving off the cartilage inside the socket. A titanium shell would then be placed into the socket and a titanium stem would be fitted inside my thigh bone. Finally, a plastic liner would be placed inside the socket, like a washer, and a ceramic head fitted on the femoral component. The stem in my femur would have special coating that would create a “biologic” fixation between my femur bone and the implant, which would prevent weakening of the bone in my femur around the stem. It all seemed very high tech and I was impressed by the apparent strength and robustness of the materials.

The other really helpful thing I did, again more through chance than real planned intention was that I found myself a ‘THR buddy’. I learnt at a work seminar that an old colleague of mine had only just been through a THR six months previously. Although ten years older than me he was a wonderful source of encouragement and advice in the weeks that led up to the operation on what to expect, what to take to hospital and what the immediate days afterwards would be like.

Finally, symptomatic with my nature and character I could not help myself writing down with the help of Sarah Lawson and Nick Smith a rehab plan (see the chart below). Maybe this sort of level of detail is not for everyone but having milestones and targets certainly helped me on the road to recovery post-op. They talked through the restrictions that I would need to adhere to to start with while my new joint settled down post-op, returning to a normal daily routine, taking up gentle sports and finally getting back to impact loading sports.

The Operation and Rehab Journey (Hint - prepare for small steps)

The details of the operation are beyond the scope of this article save for saying that I was unlucky to have some form of psycho-symptomatic shutdown of the muscles in my operative leg which slowed me to getting back on my feet in the hours and days following the surgery. It was also shocking to be on crutches and having to relearn to walk but the physios at Physio Remedies were absolutely brilliant. Nick Smith ‘absorbed’ my frustration at literally not being able to run before I could walk. Throughout the early part of 2017 he gradually guided me and supported me along my rehab journey from taking baby steps without the crutches, to isometric and proprioception exercises in their gym, to strengthening exercises using the multi-gym, to more advanced intensive work to rebuild the muscle bulk that I had lost as a result of the operation.

I will always remember that one day when my ‘Trendelenburg gait’ (an abnormal gait caused by post-operative weakness of the abductor muscles of the lower limb, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus) had disappeared and Nick saying to me in his broad Yorkshire accent “look at that Ivan, you have got your swagger back”. I certainly had.

Today’s Update (Hint - take the risk – millions have and will continue to do so)

As I conclude, the discomfort, pain and anxiety of those pre-op days are but a faint memory. So too are the nine months of rehabilitation. I can’t even imagine how I would be today if I had not taken the leap of faith to get on with it. I completed my first sprint triathlon on the 17th of September 2017, nine months after the surgery.

Since the operation I have kited in Mauritius, windsurfed in Maui, Hawaii, skied in Kitzbuhel, Austria and returned to a life of sport. The guys at Physio Remedies have recommended that I don’t ever run a marathon again – there are THR patients that unbelievably do as well as even ultra-marathons and IronMan triathlons – but I am ok with that.

Sprint Triathlon Nine Months After Total Hip Replacement Surgery, September 2017.

It is easy, having ‘come out of the other side’, to say this but the benefits far out weigh the risks of an operative nature.

My top five tips to aid a successful total hip replacement are:

1. Get the best advice.

2. Consult and work as early as possible with Phyisos who are deeply experienced with THR rehabilitation such as Physio Remedies.

3. Research as much or little as you need about the operation.

4. Find a THR buddy.

5. Set some goals to help you on the road to recovery.

Finally, with the recent arrival of my first child, Molly, it has become apparent that I made the right decision to have the THR early. As she grows up, although there is always a chance in ten to fifteen years’ time that I will need a revision to the THR, I can guarantee you that she will never know how the early onset of hip arthritis nearly killed me but I really have lived to die another day.

Ivan with Molly on the kite surfing beach at Hayling Island August 2018.

Words and images by Ivan. Ivan runs an IT professional services company, Snell Consultancy, and he can be contacted at www.ivansnell.com.

If you’re experiencing hip pain call us on 02030 12 12 22 to book an appointment with one of our hip specialists: Paul Martin or Alex Manos.

Die Another Day PART 2: Total Hip Replacement - Ivan's Story

Die Another Day PART 2: Total Hip Replacement Gives Physio Remedies Patient, Ivan, A New Lease of Life

Forty-nine year old Physio Remedies total hip replacement (THR) patient Ivan describes how his knowledge of the modern day advances in hip replacement technology, famous sportsmen and women that had undergone THR surgery and the first class physiotherapy and referral advice he received from Sarah Lawson and Nick Smith of Physio Remedies enabled him to make the decision to have surgery early and start realising the benefits of doing so – PART 2, making the decision.

In Part 1 Ivan gave the background to his sporting life and his diagnosis.

Making the Decision (Hint: look at what other THR patients are doing worldwide)

So the mind games began. There must be a mistake? I have hip osteoarthritis, that’s what my mother had that preceded her total knee replacement when she was seventy five. There must be a mistake, I need a second opinion surely? It is nothing that a few anti-inflammatory and pain killers won’t nail. I must have reached a threshold of discomfort.  Why don’t I wait a few years, let’s set a date? When I am fifty or maybe fifty five?

Mr THR Bionic

Sometimes in life you have to believe in fate, even if it seems that we ‘filter in’ events and information which will help us solve problems – events or information that in our normal life we would ignore. My turning point in making the decision to go ahead with the operation was one afternoon, following the consultation with Professor Haddad, at a water-ski lake outside London. I got chatting to another water-skier who happened to be an orthopaedic surgeon. Not surprisingly he knew of Professor Haddad and his excellent reputation but, of more relevance, he said to me “Did you see the guy before you mono-skiing on the lake?” I had indeed seen a guy, about mid-fifties, canning it back and forth between the water ski buoys like a pro but I had not paid him much attention. “That was so and so” my new acquaintance said adding with a smile, “by the way he has had both his hips replaced”. I could have cried for joy!

Once I understood, from seeing Mr THR bionic water-skier man in action, that a THR did not mean the end of the life as I knew it, I researched all I could find on sports after total hip replacement surgery. It blew my mind. I thought hip replacements were an end of life last resort to keep the aged in their eighties mobile with the aid of a walking stick. How wrong could I be?

Total Hip Replacements - The Statistics

There are now over 1.4 million total hip replacements performed globally each year, over 230,000 in the USA and 80,000 total hip replacements alone in the UK, 60,000 carried out by the NHS. And the trajectory of THR operations is expected to increase with estimates that they will exceed 575,000 in the USA by the year 2020.

In fact, the clinical improvement now achievable from modern total hip replacement surgery is known to be second only to major heart surgery, as the single most life-value adding surgery. The procedure is into its fifth or sixth decade of development. As surgical techniques and the prosthetic biomaterial and technology have improved in the past three decades, THR has almost become a standard, highly routine, procedure to deal with the pain of end-stage hip osteoarthritis.

The lifetime of the prosthetic has increased dramatically encouraging surgeons to recommend THRs to a younger and younger demographic of the population. For example, from 2001 to 2007 in the USA, the incidence rate of total hip arthroscopy (THA) in patients between the ages of 50 and 59 increased by 50 percent. This far outpaced the incidence in persons aged 60 to 69 (15%) and 70 to 79 (9%). But what would I be able to do after my surgery? 

Total Hip Replacements - A Who’s Who

I read up more and my research turned up some surprising ‘A’ list athletes who had undergone THR at relatively young ages and since returned to high level activities, including sports and physically demanding vocations. I am sure you may recognise some of the following (age of THR):

• Jo Durie – British tennis player (53)

• Andrew Castle – British tennis player (50)

• Mark Covell – British sailor, British Olympic Silver Medallist (48)

• Scott Mckercher – Australian pro windsurfer (46)

• Patty Lane - US triathlete (50)

A decision!

My mind was made up. I was through the mental anguish. I was going to do this to get back on the water, back on the bike and running again. And besides, I was desperately hoping to have a family one day, how could I ever imagine not being able to windsurf or kite or even run around with my children?

Words by Ivan. Ivan runs an IT professional services company, Snell Consultancy, and he can be contacted at www.ivansnell.com.

If you’re experiencing hip pain call us on 02030 12 12 22 to book an appointment with one of our hip specialists: Paul Martin or Alex Manos.

Next month – PART 3, preparing for surgery, the operation, rehab and today’s update.

Die Another Day PART 1: Total Hip Replacement - Ivan's Story

Die Another Day PART 1: Total Hip Replacement - Ivan's Story

Forty-nine year old Physio Remedies’ total hip replacement (THR) patient Ivan describes how his knowledge of the modern day advances in hip replacement technology, famous sportsmen and women that had undergone THR surgery and the first class physiotherapy and referral advice he received from Sarah Lawson and Nick Smith of Physio Remedies enabled him to make the decision to have surgery early and start realising the benefits of doing so – PART 1, diagnosis.

Introduction to Ivan

Every athlete, sportsman or woman dies twice: once when they take their last breath and once when they hang up their jersey or so the popular adage goes. No matter the level of competition or ability, once that part of someone's life ends it creates an unfillable void and an insatiable desire to play again. No real death is experienced obviously, but a major part of that person's life vanishes. This popular phrase played through my head on repeat as I sat in my orthopaedic surgeon, Professor Fares Haddad’s, office in dejected terror and disbelief in September 2016 trying to let his words sink in.

“I am afraid it’s bone on bone, there is no cartilage left. You are going to need a new hip. It is a simple as that” he said. “I am only forty-seven years old” I thought! But that was that. The camera, or in this case, an x-ray, never lies. This is the story of my journey from that day, now more than two years ago, to a happy place today. A place where my old life has returned. Not only am I hundred percent pain free but I am back to the same activity levels and lifestyle pre-operation.

A Life of Sport

I am a sportsman and waterman. That’s who I am. That’s what I do. At school I played every sport under the sun. County hockey, football, rugby, cricket, golf, squash, badminton, tennis, rackets, but real tennis was my passion. I was a British junior national champion in all junior age groups and I played for GB in the 1988 Bathurst Cup (the Real Tennis equivalent of the Ryder Cup). My first sailing experience was at fourteen months old in my father’s Swallow keel day boat. This led on to a lifetime of dinghy sailing, windsurfing from twelve years old, kitesurfing, water skiing, wake boarding, surfing, stand up paddling (SUP) and yacht racing. I have kite surfed and windsurfed in most of the best locations there are worldwide and I ski and snowboard in the winter. And I run. Nothing dramatically spectacular but I run. Cross country at school, ticked off the marathon sub-four hour on the to-do list and I have run my fair share of half marathons. In the last ten years, I have taken up triathlons. Add swimming and cycling to the list. You get the picture.

Physio Remedies Referral (Hint: get the best advice you can afford)

The pain started gradually at first. It was autumn 2015, three years ago. A post run deep sharp pain in my pelvis after I got up from my desk at work left me hobbling for a couple of minutes. This progressed from post sport discomfort to pain on a daily basis. I had to stop running. I developed a limp. Pushing down on the clutch pedal in slow traffic hurt. By April 2016 I was in real trouble. A walking holiday in the Atlas Mountains, Morocco proved to be a struggle. Despite ongoing release and mobilisation work from Nick Smith, Physio Remedies’ Senior Physiotherapist, the symptoms were getting worse not better.

After a tennis match in September 2016 I was not able to walk back home from a local restaurant without the supporting shoulders of my girlfriend and her mother. Not a good moment, believe me! I remember walking two minutes from a tube station to a work event and standing there, champagne glass and canapé holder in hand, grimacing at the shooting pain in my left hip.

Sarah Lawson, Senior Physiotherapist and Physio Remedies’ founding Director, was brilliant at recommending who I should be referred to see from her London network of top orthopaedic surgeons. She considered who would be the best match for my situation, taking into account many factors such as my age, the suspected pathology of my hip injury, my sporting needs and the specialisms of the surgeon. She recommended I should go and see Professor Fares Haddad who has a worldwide reputation for treating sports related knee and hip injuries.

Following on from my consultation with Professor Haddad he wrote to me with his diagnosis. I had hoped, like an idiot that it was not structural, maybe a lower back ligament or tendon issue? But there it was in black and white. I read his letter, ‘he (me) is now bone on bone on the left-hand side (hip), he will need to manage the symptoms but will end up with arthroplasty surgery (a total hip replacement)’.

Words by Ivan. Ivan runs an IT professional services company, Snell Consultancy, and he can be contacted at www.ivansnell.com.

If you’re experiencing hip pain call us on 02030 12 12 22 to book an appointment with one of our hip specialists: Alex Manos or Paul Martin.

Next month – Part 2 - Making the decision.

Client News: Toby Swims The Channel

Physio Remedies client Toby Davis planned to swim The English Channel at the end of July in aid of The Cystic Fibrosis Trust but the weather wasn't playing ball during his window. However, he did eventually get the call to swim and his Channel Swim Report follows.

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Finally, I'm off!

After a frustrating two week wait for the weather, at 11pm on Monday 7th August I finally lowered myself off the boat and walked up Shakespeare Beach (just around the corner from Dover Harbour) to clear the water feeling calm and relaxed, reminding myself to enjoy what might well be a once in a lifetime experience. Then the klaxon sounded to signal the start of my 21 mile channel swim from England to France and we were off - I dived in and swam out to my boat SUVA's spotlight in the water, which I would use as a marker over the next 6 hours of darkness.

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Ready for the off!

The first few hours

That first few minutes were exhilarating but I managed to control the adrenaline and settle into a decent rhythm fairly quickly. I fed every hour and my first feed was very quick - a quick roll onto my back, down the carb drink and confirm to my crew that I felt good, then off again. About 15 seconds, which was the plan. Over the whole swim it turned out my longest feed was 40 seconds and average time about 20 secs which I was very pleased with. 

After the first feed the next 2.5 hours flew by and I knew it was going well. Swimming in the dark was fun, it gave me the opportunity to solely focus on getting my stroke right and making sure I was enjoying the swim as planned. 

Hour 4

Around hour 4 it started to feel a bit more of an effort and, when I stopped for a feed I realised why - suddenly where before I had been floating on my back next to the boat, now when I did that I had to kick furiously just to stay alongside. That brought home just how strong the tide I was swimming in was, and ended any over optimistic thoughts in my head about the possibility of making it across in a super quick time.

Around this time I also got some jellyfish stings to my back, legs, shoulder and most interestingly across my mouth and nose - I didn't really mind these actually, they were a bit like an extra strong stinging nettle and helped jolt me out of any autopilot swimming. 

Sunrise

Around 5:30am we were treated to the most amazing sunrise which brought the darkness section of my swim to a dramatic end. To witness that from sea level in the middle of the channel was truly spectacular.

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I am a very dark shadow in the foreground in this one but quite rightly the sunrise takes centre stage!

Hour 11

I swam steadily and pretty comfortably until the 11th hour when my crew told me they needed a big push in terms of effort. So I sprinted at 100% for an hour, which felt like forever. The fascinating thing was that, despite having swum for 10 hours already, every time my brain told me I needed to slow down I could override it and just kick harder.

Unfortunately the spring tide turned out to be too strong for me to fight across it and hit land at Cap Gris Nez, which tends to be the fastest place to end a crossing. So I found myself being swept up the coast by a strong turned tide, which meant the sprinting had to continue as I tried to fight far enough through it to hit land.

Hour 13

Around hour 13 I got frustrated as France had seemingly disappeared from view (it was actually hiding behind the boat on my right as I got swept north past the Cap) and I asked for a marker to give me an idea of how close I was. Neil my pilot told me I was deep into French inshore waters, and shortly after that the coast came into view again seemingly within touching distance.

Despite being no more than a couple of kilometres out, I spent another 2 hours pushing across the tide to get in - that time actually went quite quickly as I knew that I would get in eventually and that it was just a matter of time. I had to stop myself celebrating in my head though as I knew lots of swimmers still failed to hit the shore from that close. But finally I got close enough to see the houses and beach on the shoreline and knew I was swimming into Wissant. 

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Me sprinting against the ferry

The final 20 minutes!

The last 20 mins were pretty special, just making the most of the experience and thinking about all of the people who had supported me through the months and months of training. It got slightly emotional. I could walk up the last 50 metres and had a great time running and jumping through the waves to stand clear of the water for the klaxon to sound the end of the swim after a total of 15 hours 04 minutes! 

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Channel Swimmer!

It felt incredible to have finished the swim and even better that physically I still felt pretty good. I could easily lift my arms above my head and hold up my 4 month old in celebration once we got back to Dover, which I think is a good result!

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The team - Neil the pilot, Toby the co-pilot, Kate, me, Alice and Tony the official observer

I was back in the water (with pain free shoulders) within 2 days which was a huge bonus and a ringing endorsement for Ray Gibbs' coaching and the technique work he has done with me, as well as the excellent physio I had received in advance of the swim from Sarah Lawson at Physio Remedies.

Now to relax a bit and work on my future swim bucket list with a cold drink in hand!

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Toby's Channel Swim has raised over £10,000 to date. If you're as impressed as we are at Toby's feat, you can donate to The Cystic Fibrosis Trust via his Just Giving page.

Words and images by Toby Davis.