Michael had not accepted the cart without a fight.
Two rounds of physiotherapy. A cortisone shot that gave him six weeks of feeling almost normal — walked three full rounds, started planning Scotland with his son. Then it wore off.
"I felt worse after it wore off than before I got it. Because now I knew exactly what I was missing."
Back to ibuprofen. Two before every round.
Sometimes two more at the turn.
A brace he wore under his trousers so nobody would see it. A $197 online program he did 60% of.
Fourteen months. Still on the cart.
The reason is the same for every approach.
Cortisone suppresses cytokine production temporarily. When it ends the inflammation floods back — often more advanced than before.
Ibuprofen suppresses the pain signal. The cytokines keep producing. The damage keeps advancing.
Physiotherapy builds strength around the joint. Cannot reach the inflammatory process inside the tissue.
Every treatment was addressing a signal or a surrounding structure. None of them went where the problem actually lived — the cytokine production in the soft tissue of the joint itself.
The cart was not the result of bad luck or insufficient effort.
It was the result of inflammation that had never been treated at the source