Lippy Stuff

About two months ago I started experiencing pain in my right knee during my runs. Like any good runner I ignored it until my body would no longer let me...2.5 miles into a 5 mile loop along Venice Beach. That was a long walk back.

As soon as I got back home to Austin I sought out a physical therapist, vowing to nip this in the bud and get back out on the road ASAP. Except that hasn't happened. I haven't been able to run more than a mile since that last run in early December, and 3 weeks ago I stopped running all together after my physical therapist gave me the stink eye and told me to CUT IT OUT. "Fine", I said. "But I can ride my bike, right?" "Sure", he said. "That's excellent. Except no hills. Stay in your saddle, nothing too crazy." Roger.

I have been obeying orders like I'm in the military. No running, riding flats when the weather is nice. Matt even found me a trainer on Craigslist so I can ride inside during crappy weather. But there is nothing like being outside on the road on a beautiful day, and I have found that I like riding on the trainer about as much as I like running on a treadmill. It is le boring.

Yesterday I met up with a riding buddy and we had an excellent ride. It was a beautiful day, not too windy, and god did it feel good to get outside and soak up the sun. I maaaaay have done some small hills, but nothing that required me to get out of the saddle (see, still obeying orders). I will admit that after the ride my knee felt weird (weak, like it was going to give out). No pain, no swelling, just weird. But I pushed it out of my mind because I NEED this one thing to be OK for me to do.

Today, as I confessed my ride and shared how my knee was feeling, my physical therapist uttered the horrible O word again...orthopedist. As in a surgeon, for evaluation. No. No no no no no. I've done this before. I have literally been in this exact same place before. And not literally in the non-literal way people use the word. I have LITERALLY lived out these same events before. I have taken physical therapy for knee issues. I have had the therapist tell me it's not working. I have been referred to an orthopedist. And I have had knee surgery (last time on both knees). I don't want to do it again. There is no guarantee I will have to have surgery again, but based on my latest MRI and my current symptoms it is clear my current issues are related to my previous issues (medial meniscus problems for you medical types). BLARG. That's all I have to say to that.

I am discouraged, defeated. I know there are way more horrible things happening to people out there, but this is happening to me now and it sucks. I've honestly been putting off his referral to the orthopedist for a couple of weeks. I finally took the time to sit down with my MRI results and the computer to decipher it into words that make sense to me and I could no longer deny the fact that this is real. I'm not making this up, not being a wuss. There is really something wrong with my knee and I'm going to have to address it if I want to get back out there.

When I had surgery in high school it was the cool thing to do; everybody was doing it. You were like, a hard core athlete, dude. Now the thought of it just makes me feel old. With any luck I'll be able to avoid going under the knife. Either way I know it's going to mean down time from any kind of hard core exercise for a while. Anyone who knows me knows that's not going to be an easy thing for me to do. If you're looking for me, you'll find me on my trainer while I watch episodes of Firefly to keep me entertained.