Pre-existing Knee Condition/ Insurance/ Helicopter Evacuation

[Excited but Nervous]

Hi All,

New to this forum – and am heading off to Kokoda in approx 3 weeks. As the name suggests I'm Excited but Nervous !! Couple of enquiries I need help with….

1) During my training I found that I started getting knee pain and inflammation after about 3-4 hours of walking. I have since been attending a physio to help me out with it – diagnosis is a type of 'runners knee' i.e…my knee is tracking wrong as my hips are out of alignment which is causing the inflammation. Continue to attend physio but as you can imagine – is starting to worry me as to whether I will be able to complete the trek. Anyone had this problem and any advice of management on the track aside from anti-inflamms and taping ??

2) I disclosed my knee problem on my travel insurance app and automatically got a knee exclusion. Does anyone know of any Insurers who cover pre-existing conditions for additional premium ?? If so…who ??

3) Worse case scenario for me is if I can't finish the trek due to my knee and I have to fund medical evacuation (helicopter) myself. Does anyone have any idea of approximate cost….as I am totally stressing out that a trek which is reasonable in cost has a possibility of setting me back tens of thousands of dollars financially.

Any and all advice/help appreciated !!!!!

[39thdecendant]

Get yourself a good quality knee brace from a sports shop, one which straps around your knee, this should give you some good support, take some tiger balm with you to rub your knee at night to keep the heat in, but dont' rub it in in the morning and put the guard on, you will get a rash. I started taking glucosamine & fish oil which helped. I also have a bad knee and yes it did hurt,I took copius amounts of panadine and nurofen, but it is also mind over matter, you can walk through the pain, after a while everything else will be hurting so much you won't notice it 🙂
(kidding) Make sure your day pack is not too heavy and don't walk in long pants. Don't be stubborn about giving your day pack to one of the porters to carry if you are struggling, they are there to help you, just give him some kina at the end of the trek. You will most probably find your knee will hurt most when you stop and in the morning, keep some pain killers handy and have some in the morning regardless before you start.. it will help.
Good luck and remember it's 40% physical and 60% mind.. don't tell yourself you can't do it, just put one foot in front of the other, don't look up, don't ask your porter how much further, his standard answer will be ' long way lik lik' ( only a bit more) which could be anything from 10minutes to 5 hours! we walked for 15 minutes and had 5 minues break, that 5 minutes was heaven and we got to really enjoy the some of the most glorious country you have ever seen.
Good luck

[mikmac1959]

G'day
Unfortunate about the sore knee! It will certainly play on your mind but as advised it comes down to
your preperation and determination. No one no matter what age or fitness escapes a little pain.
When i walked there was a gentleman in his 60's had a knee replacement with some sort of complications( muscle taken from his ham string or something) could hardly bend his knee!
Trained hard and walked with his 2 sons and fairdinkum done it really , really tough!!!! But the porters were absolutely brilliant!!
He started with a full pack, but after a day or 2 a porter took his pack and he just carried his bladder pack. Then as things got worse he had 2 porters looking after him!! Each day he would leave earlier than the rest of the party and we would reel him in sometime thru the day and he would arrive at camp after us (but never after dark) AND HE NEVER EVER GAVE UP!!!!
It was an awesome sight for him to be welcoming us all at the memorial gates at Owers Corner!!
What a legend and a true Aussie inspiration!!
Anyway what i am trying to say, we all have doubts and concerns before we go, (old footy, or netball injuries) but that's part of it!! To find out what those diggers went thru, and if you can dig deep inside yourself, and discover if you have got what it takes to finish this amazing journey!!
cheers

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