The next stage

Once I healed from the fracture in the left knee and started moving again, I began to notice that my right leg was rotating externally every time I did a forward bend. Slowly I started experiencing pain in the joint as I practiced and fairly soon also when I walked. Having had an MRI it showed that the cartilage wear was substantial. The orthopedic surgeon talked me into having a shot of cortisone given straight into the joint using ultrasound. This was done in late september last year. It kept the pain away for almost two months. And I was happily walking and moving around. Practicing, although not with the same flexibility as before. Then the pain came back and the process was renewed a little before Christmas last year. This time the shot didn’t help. It actually made things worse. And since that time it’s been a long slide downhill.

I tried to maintain mobility in the joint through my yoga practice, the specific ones my teacher Aadil Palkhivala had recommended and other exercises designed to strengthen the muscles around the joint given to me by my daughter, the physiotherapist. I added supplements for joint health to my diet. I used Sunrider foods to support it and Young Living oils to ease the discomfort. I saw my wonderful osteopath Jonna regularly, had massages and acupuncture. And I used the Heartfull™ Meditation techniques recommended by my teacher Savitri to support the hip.

However whenever I did any kind of extension of the hip, external or internal rotation the pain was severe and the movement extremely limited.

Although in the end I wasn’t able to stop the progress of the osteoarthritis, I am ever so thankful that I did all of this! Why? You’ll see.

The images below are from Orthoinfo AAOS and picture a healthy hip joint and one with osteoarthritis, meaning that the cartilage that absorbes shocks and makes the movement of the joint smooth has worn down. In my case I was completely bone on bone.