Torn Rotator Cuff. My shoulder rotator cuff was injured, 'small full thickness tear of supraspinatus tendon', from an escalator accident. I had open surgery in 2017. Great surgeon and it feels back to normal.
Knee Arthritis. My right knee was diagnosed with arthritis that showed on an X Ray, 2016?. I had had meniscus surgery much earlier in 1999 with an estimated '30-40%' of the right medial meniscus removed. The surgeon above estimated how much he had removed. When I moved and returned to tennis for the first time after my shoulder surgery in 2018, my knee hurt from just walking around. I was down because I worried about my tennis at age 75 with a painful knee and a great new tennis club. I took it easy running for balls and the pain went away. The knee joint improved and feels normal now. I can't explain, but the 1999 surgery makes my knee a special case vs arthritis of the normal knee.
Broken Wrist. I fell while back pedaling for a lob in 2019 and landed hard on left hand and hip. Broke wrist through the ulna bone joint surface to wrist. Healed OK. Lost maybe 10 degrees range of motion.
Hip Arthritis. When I started back to tennis from the broken wrist in 2019, it went OK at first. But over the last few months of 2019, I developed hip pain during my old man doubles matches. Pains got worse and began lasting a few days after the tennis. I stopped late 2019. Diagnose from X Ray was moderate arthritis, left hip. Physical therapy was almost completed when I stopped going to PT because of Covid, early 2020.
Hip Pain Sitting. I sat a lot for Covid and got a very persistent pain when sitting, pain at my left sitz bone. Just sitting was painful in a few seconds. I saw Physician's Assistant by telehealth and she prescribed an MRI. The MRI showed a torn hamstring tendon that attaches at the sitz bone. That injury might have occurred from my fall in 2019. ? Was the earlier arthritis diagnosis the cause of my left hip pain or was the torn hamstring from the fall? Pain went away. The PA was going to have a physical therapist contact me for video PT for the hamstring tear. I seem to have been forgotten by the PA, twice. ? Now I feel better and have 1 dose of Convid 19 vaccination. So next, I expect to get in shape and get back on the courts.
Conditioning. While walking the other day, I ran 25 yards, it did not feel good. I need work to ease back to running. For past knee injuries, I had found a high school with a rubber track and it took a good month of slow progress before going back to anything at the tennis court.
In 2020, with the threat of Covid, I went to the courts only two times and bounce fed baskets of balls. I have no idea how I will do this time and have never been off this long. I'm out of condition.
Golfer's Elbow. I must have a very slight tendinosis from an old Golfer's Elbow injury that I had several years ago. There is no pain for months, then some motion will cause a little reminder that probably some tendinosis is there. If I feel it, with tennis or other activity, I avoid the cause.
Arthritis under Patella. In an MRI from 1998, the written report also indicated that the patella (knee cap) had arthritic cartilage damage under it. This is a very common area for early knee arthritis. I ignored that finding for many years. Around 10 or 15 years later, I was experiencing knee pain when I sat and then got up to walk. I thought that it was ordinary old age. I found on the internet information that this might be the result of tight rectus femorus muscles causing knee cap pressure on the cartilage under the knee cap. I followed the stretches and they felt good. I believe the stretches reduced the cartilage damage under my knee caps by reducing the pressure. It also reduced some anterior pelvic tilt that I had, a posture flaw. I had those conditions probably from before the 1998 MRI for about 15 years until I found the information to correct it. I have posted on this in the Health and Fitness forum.
This tight rectus femorus issue shows up in a posture exam. After other injuries, I started asking for posture examinations and PT prescriptions, if indicated. If you get a joint injury, have your posture examined. You may be able to avoid future injuries.
My joints feel fine, like the other times that I have stopped playing tennis. When I last played tennis at the end of 2019, only my left hip hurt, as discussed. The other issues above were not bothering me.
Note- I believe that arthritis has a progression
1st - damaging cartilage, pain may not be present.
2nd - damaging bone, pain can be present.
