local orthopedic doctor recommendations

[aknollme]

Hi All,

I'm looking for suggestions for orthopedic doctor recommendations in the St. Louis area who can help give advise about surgery options/ etc. with the perspective squats are good and not bad?
I'm having knee issues, most likely caused by basketball. Starting Strength helps my knees and everything else tremendously. I'm just not getting ahead of the issues, 1-2 steps forward 1-2 steps back for the past year.

Anyone in St. Louis have a good orthopedic doctor?

Thanks in advance!

-Adam

[Kevin Peters]

Adam,

I am in the St. Louis area and have had a very long history of knee problems. I have had 8 knee surgeries in total; a few "smaller" surgeries to clean things up and a 4 cadaver cartilage transplants to attempt to fix very large completely degenerated voids in both my knees most likely stemming from a lifetime of volleyball & track. In addition to the surgeries countless injections of various things, etc. I have had a few ortho's and the one that did the heavy lifting and is by far the best surgeon in my opinion is Dr. Matthew Matava (Wash U Orthopedics).

For what it is worth I am almost 43 years old and all my surgeries took place between ages 36-40. I tell you this because while some of the smaller surgeries I somewhat came back from I was never particularly the same once they opened my knees up. Basically certain larger issues were resolved but my knee was far more sensitive or fragile after the surgeries.

I tried doing SSLP on my own and kept running into walls with recovery and knee flare ups. In April of this year I saw Cody Miller, SSC and have been working with him since. I have made progress that I never felt was possible before and I went in with what he thought was a pretty decent squat. My point is with bad knees tiny little fixes that only a SSC might catch are very impactful.

Best of luck,

Kevin

[aknollme]

Thanks for the feedback. I set up an appointment with him.

Your doctors do seem quick to the knife. Looking for a doctor open to SSLP as a prescription vs always a surgery. Similar to the quote from Maslow "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" I'm hoping for the doctor to be open minded to the best solution not one in their best interest ($$surgery, $follow ups, $lifetime of minor issues where you keep going back$$$). Maybe I'm the hammer here, but would be interesting out of all the patients an ortho doc receives if a successful SSLP solution was ever found.

I guess any if a doctor has ever successfully treated chronic and acute knee issues with SSLP, at least once, I would feel better about the treatment advise they would provide.

[Kevin Peters]

True to an extent, but you don't really need a surgeon to prescribe SSLP. They are surgeons and they truly believe that they can fix things, which they absolutely do. SSC's truly believe in SS and recommend that. The point of my above statement was to say that surgery may be your only option but it comes at a cost and does not guarantee 100% recovery. Start small and see what works. A doc or surgeon can tell you what is wrong, and how they would fix it. If you do everything you know to avoid surgery (like diligently following the program with a SSC correcting you) and the problem persist maybe take the next step.

While I see a lot of surgeons recommend surgery I see a lot of folks agree to surgery without trying to fix it themselves.

Dr. Matava is great and above board, he won't recommend a surgery he doesn't feel is necessary and if you decide to have surgery I suggest he is trustworthy (whatever that is worth).

But seriously good luck with it all,

Kevin

[aknollme]

Update: I saw Dr. Matava, took xrays which were good, moved the joint around, and thought everything looked good (minus minor swelling and tightness). He thought I had patella femoral syndrome and needed MRI for further investigation. The primary treatment for patella femoral syndrome, from my internet search, was rest. So I'm taking it easy before I sink another $1000 on MRI.

Everything is getting better, I also reread Squat section in the SS "Many cases of patellar tendinitis have been caused by this incorrect squat technique" in the section of "Squat Depth - Safety and Importance" 1st paragraph pg 18, SS 3rd edition. I reviewed my squat videos and saw I wasn't getting to depth and my knees were going too far forward. I deloaded and I'm restarting SSLP squat from 135lb.

Also, found this video from Dr. Feigenbaum and Dr. Baraki to be helpful:
Barbell Medicine Podcast 1: Osteoarthritis
Barbell Medicine Podcast 1: Osteoarthritis - YouTube

Thanks Kevin, you helped lead me to the right resources.

-Adam

[Kevin Peters]

Sounds like a good plan. Consider seeing Cody Miller, SSC in O'Fallon. He's great and help me get my squat (and other lifts) cleaned up tremendously. Worth every penny.

Kevin