Weak in the Knee

Sadly, not my Doctor.

As an athlete gone soft with age and inactivity, it is no fun to realize that you can’t really do the things you used to be able to do. I mean, I used to run about six miles on a Sunday for fun!

Unfortunately, at some point in 2008-2009, I hurt my knee. I took Aleve or Advil and tried to stay off of it. I probably put some ice on it to ease the pain. Eventually, it would feel better. For a little while.

Inevitably, I would aggravate it somehow and the pain would come back. Sometimes more intense. Sometimes just at a level of annoyance. It was a weak knee, I told myself. Running Cross Country for eight years finally caught up with me.

I had already went to the doctor in 2007 regarding my weak ankle. He did an MRI and found some micro-tears. It wasn’t really worth it to get fixed. I’d just have to be a bit more careful.

So, my exercise regiment was reduced to nothing. I tried swimming, treadmill running and the elliptical, but it just didn’t work for me. To be fair, I might not have given it a fair shot either. I’d like to get in better shape, I really would. It just seems my body was breaking down and exercise wasn’t helping.

Was I just getting old? I don’t particularly feel old. I’m just not as young as I used to be. Still, I had to do something.

As I was contemplating my exercising future last week, I made a mistake of squatting to get something from a cupboard and it really, really hurt getting back up. Nothing snapped. I didn’t lock my knee. I felt fine afterward. Until, the knee started buckling when I’d get up from a sitting position. Then, a week ago Friday, my knee decided to swell and really hurt. I iced it. I took meds. Nothing really worked. On Saturday, I could barely walk. On Sunday, all I did was lay on my couch, elevate my knee and ice it for 20 minutes on and off. Monday through Thursday was an even level of pain. I could walk with a heavy limp, but the Aleve cut the pain reasonably well. I continued to prop my knee up.

Earlier in the week, I had decided I needed to go see an Orthopedic surgeon to find out what I’d done. Maybe I’d get some anti-inflammatory meds and some physical therapy appointments. Alas, no. I was told I had a torn meniscus and he’d have to go in and scope it.

Luckily, I could get in on Monday for the surgery. I’ve never gone under general anesthesia, so I’m a little scared about that, but I shouldn’t worry about it too much. It’s outpatient surgery, so I’ll be home that same day and likely fairly loopy from the pain meds.

They say, I could be up and walking around on Tuesday or Wednesday. I wonder if I’ll be able to run again

Wish me luck.

LINKY GOODNESS

• Ten rules for writing fiction from people who know.
• Love and Baseball. As spring training nears, a sportswriter looks at baseball as a metaphor for life and relationships.
• Interesting, all-too-brief account of a family in Texas who fakes Christianity for social reasons. As agnostics, their children don’t get play dates.
• “For me, seeing this picture was just like finding out there’s no Santa Claus.”
• 5-year-old Savannah Hensley talked to a 911 dispatcher for ten minutes while an ambulance came for her father. The audio of that call is the most adorable emergency communication ever.
• Shocking: Higher song prices lead to fewer downloads. Duh. Fucking Duh.
• Amazing, hi res satellite images of the world’s largest airplane graveyard.
• How to use a semicolon.
• A time suck you can feel good about: True Slant’s amazing compilation of the Best Journalism of 2009.
• The Republican health care plan hurts the sick and rewards the healthy
• An intriguing question: Is Inglourious Basterds a science fiction movie?

SHOUTING AT THE SEA

“According to Don Ambrose, a Rider University professor who studies creative intelligence, incubation is most effective when it involves exposing the mind to entirely novel information rather than just relieving mental pressure. This encourages creative association, the mashing together of seemingly unrelated concepts — a key step in the creative process…. A random scrap of information can trigger just the right conceptual collision. It’s hard to know which scrap might do the trick, but that’s the beauty of social networks — they constantly produce potential sparks, for free.” — Wired’s Brendan Koerner tries to convince you that you are not wasting your time when you mess around on Facebook and Twitter.

COLOPHON

Yes, I’m looking forward to the new Doctor Who with Matt Smith.

Just a reminder, you can view this and lots more of my past posts at swimminginchampaign.com. You can also find me at seanmcdevitt.com