Those in Boston over the past couple of weeks may have noticed me having more free time than usual, and possibly will have noticed a bit of a limp and kind of a pained look on my face a lot of the time.
After 2 weeks with a very swollen knee, I went to see the nurse practictioner in my doctor’s office, and then the orthopedist to whom she gave me a referral. The word is that I’ve either inflamed or partially torn a tendon on the inside of my right knee, towards the back of the leg. (For the medical types among you, that would be a Posterior Medial somethin’ or other.)
In this diagram, I’m talking about something around where the Semitendinosus, Gracilis, and Sartorius Tendons are labeled. I don’t know which tendon it is, because the doctor guy wasn’t very specific — he really can’t be without an MRI to show specific damage. I do know that there’s a spot on the inside of my knee that if you press, very lightly, you can almost completely incapacitate me and make me yell. Very loudly.
Being gimpy, though, has been a good lesson in the extent to which I really, really hate not being active. It drives me crazy. Back when I was teaching, one of the things that really bothered me was that all of my energy went into the classroom, and there was nothing left for even basic exercise. It just wasn’t possible to exercise on anything like a regular basis, and the psychological effects of that were hard to deal with, not only for me but for everyone around me.
This summer, getting back to playing ultimate on a regular basis, to running and doing plyos and all those other things that were missing for a couple of years, I’ve been happier than I’ve been since graduating. Maybe it’s an endorphin thing, maybe it’s just not feeling like a slug, but it’s been gratifying to be outside making my muscles work. It makes my life better.
But now I’m gimpy, and I can’t really do most of the things that I’d like to. I can kind of play ultimate, I just can’t cut very well because planting and turning puts a lot of stress on the knee and tends to make it swell. I can’t really risk laying out (something that I’ve been doing consistently this year, for the first time) because my knee contacting the ground when I land makes it swell. Basketball is just too risky. Even running puts so much stress on the joint that I need ibuprofin and ice afterwards.
It sucks to wake up in the morning and discover that the fluid in the joint has settled and caused the whole thing to tighten up, requiring stretching for a few minutes to regain the flexion to walk. It really sucks to have this nagging ache in your knee, just sitting there on the edge of your consciousness, for the 16 hours a day that you’re awake. It’s almost physically, and certainly is psychologically, painful to know that if you try to do something “normal,” like carrying something a little bit heavy up a set of stairs or dodging someone running down the ramp at the Harvard T stop, you might cause yourself a lot of pain.
I’m supposed to be playing in the BUDA Summer Hat tournament today, but I’ve decided that given the options I’d much rather play with FNG up at Ho Lay Cow tomorrow. It’s basically a question of one or the other, and so I’m bagging the Hat Tourney. And that makes me sad.
So I get to do some Rest and Recuperation therapy over the next few weeks, taking it relatively easy, following the RICE protocol and popping ibu and playing what little bit of ultimate I can.
In the meantime: Send endorphins