Operation Relaxation
I am not an exhibitionist. However, my swimsuit tells another story (It did last year too, unfortunately).
Today, the crew went to play tennis and I would be lying if I didn’t admit I was a little jealous. To cheer myself up, I decided to slather sunscreen on the kicking and screaming girls and head to the beach solo. After they were ready, I put my swimsuit from last year on and turned so that I could see my back while I sprayed sunscreen on in the bathroom mirror.
I saw much more than my back.
In place of the previous opaque fabric was something resembling a window screen. Beyond the "window screen", a very white butt and accompanying crack. The offending area ran about 3 inches down the crack and two inches side to side.
I gasped in horror as I recalled the previous day. I’d spent hours in that swimsuit only yesterday, strutting my stuff around the pool in the company of the girls, Mr. BBM, my father-in-law, his fiance and her son. Fan-freaking-tastic. I silently thanked God that I had spent much of the day sitting in the pool because a sunburned butt-crack would be all kinds of unpleasant.
Upon closer inspection, I found two more smaller hole areas on the front of my swimsuit bottoms. Off it went.
Because my past few days have consisted entirely of: beach, sangria, pool, hot tub, yummy food, more sangria, and oh yeah sangria, instead of shaking my fist at the universe for following me with bad luck to the beach, I shrugged the patchwork swimsuit off as a sign from the gods that I’m supposed to go buy another swimsuit.
That’s It Folks
I’m done.
I’m finished with physical therapy and I’m finished with follow-up surgical appointments. I have been officially released. The ACL saga of doctors visits and physical therapy has come to a close. It’s been a really long time, eight months to be exact.
I told my surgeon about the pain I’ve been having at that lowest incision today. He pressed on the exact location as I pretty much levitated off the table in agony. He said there’s no way it’s anything to do with the ACL and within seconds he was injecting the sore spot with cortisone and Novocaine. It hurt for a second and then he slapped a band-aid on it and told me to just sit there for five minutes. When he pressed on it again, there was no pain.
He said that it’s a stubborn piece of scar tissue and that it gets the nerves all worked up in there as well, which is why I had that radiating pain and sore spot. He said I’ll be sore from the shot and within two days it should be feeling just fine. He reiterated that although I have small incision scars, I had major surgery. This kind of stuff is normal.
So, no activity for a month and then I am free to do what I want "within limits." He told me I can do straight kicks and punches, but no sparring or tricky pivoting kata business. "You only want to do this once," he said. He also cautioned me on any deep stances and deep knee bends. "Remember," he said, "people go back to sports after this, but they’re not good at it again for a while."
I shook his hand, thanked him, and told him I hope I don’t have to ever see him again. "Not here anyway," he said and smiled.
I went out for my final physical therapy appointment and my PT told me there would be no exercises today since my surgeon injected my knee. He told me to go home and ice it which is what I’m doing now. It’s starting to feel pretty sore. Before I left, he fitted me for my brace. He has one in stock that he’s putting aside for me while he gets approval from my insurance company. Apparently it’s not cheap. No surprise there.
My PT shook my hand and wished me well and I just started to cry. It just hit me all at once that I’m done. I’m really done. I shook his hand and then gave him a huge hug while I cried and thanked him for everything. He’s been my knee confidante since October. It kind of feels like losing a good friend. He assured me that he’s there for me if I have questions or problems; and I’ll see him when I get back from vacation to officially get my brace and another lesson on how to strap that thing on. The only disappointing thing is that it doesn’t come with spikes or something on it, perhaps an alarm when someone gets too close to my knee.
I can’t believe I am finished with this part of the journey. When I get back from vacation, I’ll be finding a gym to continue my exercises. This is one vacation that is coming at just the right celebratory time.
RIP
We knew it was coming but we didn’t expect it so soon. Sure, the keypad was quirky and it made me hit "compu cook" every time I wanted to use it, but I just thought it was being tempermental. I didn’t know there were serious issues. I didn’t know it would be leaving us so soon. . .
It is with great sadness that I tell you that our microwave is dead.
Of course our microwave is dead, because the day before we go on vacation is a wonderful time for an appliance to die on you. Any showings this week will see a non-working microwave and our disclosure statement that once had a few things on it such as "quirky keypad," needs to be redone since now it is virtually spotless, as we’ve continued to replace and upgrade anything that goes wrong.
Did I mention we lowered our price this week? Do you realize I now need to buy two microwaves? I need one for this house and one for the presumed new house if this place ever sells. I’m sensing a trend.
New carpet for the current house; new flooring for the new house.
New microwave for the current house; new microwave for the new house.
New kitchen floor for the current house; new kitchen floor for the new house.
Freshly sanded and stained deck for the current house; no deck for the new house.
Wait, something doesn’t feel right here.
When I leave for vacation, I am going to do my best to completely forget about anything happening beyond the shoreline.
Dead microwaves this morning and a visit with the surgeon in just a few hours. . . can’t wait to hit the beach.
***There is a new review up at The BBM Review. If you’re looking for a samurai movie to watch this weekend, you might want to check it out (to know which one to avoid).
Kneecaps and Knitting
My physical therapist did his pre-surgeon visit evaluation on me today in advance of my Friday appointment. Friday is supposed to me my big release day, when I get told I have no restrictions. It’s not going to happen. Extension is great; flexion is equally fabulous at around 150 degrees. The only problem is this nagging pain I’m still having surrounding my lowest incision area near the tibia.
It’s been bothering me for three-four weeks now and it’s not getting better despite me backing off squats, lunges, and other stressing exercises. I’ve heard nightmare stories about a screw coming loose and although I’ve got several of those in my head that I can tolerate, one in the knee is not at all desirable. My PT does not think that’s my problem, although he said they’ll x-ray it on Friday to rule that out. I asked him if he thought I could have a tibial stress fracture and he doesn’t think that’s it either. So much for google diagnosis.
He pulled on my leg to test my ACL and my ACL is solid. There is no doubt about it. He also tested my leg strength. My hamstrings are stellar, but the quad muscle is still lagging behind. Because of this, my PT thinks that my problem with the knee is my kneecap.
Today, he taped it and had me run through my exercises (avoiding those that have really been hurting) and I think it helped a bit. I’m leaving the tape on until I go to bed tonight to see if it helps with going up and down the stairs. Although the pain is still there, it does seem to be a bit more dull. Perhaps it’s just tape toxins leaking into my system that are making me feel better. Who knows at this point?
My PT also said that maybe I just need to be on an anti-inflammatory for a little while to get the last of the swelling and irritation out. Right now, I’d like a magic wand to make it all go away.
I’m thinking my good friend Adam would like the same thing right about now, since he has also screwed up his knee. I should start a group for injured martial artists to take up a new interest. . knitting perhaps.
Fraud Alert
We got a call from our credit card company’s fraud department tonight. When I heard the message on my voice mail, my first thought was, "I am so busted." I went on a little shopping excursion with the girls this afternoon and bought them new sandals and a couple items of clothing for vacation that turned into more than I thought I was going to buy.
Because the store is right beside Ann Taylor Loft, I took a stroll in there too, and that visit also ended up with a visit to the cash register (because when does a visit to Ann Taylor Loft not end up with a visit to the cash register for me? Hint-never). I needed a white summer sweater. If you don’t believe me, I’ve been wearing a maternity one while I searched for a new one. I haven’t been pregnant in three years. I needed a new white sweater.
The items weren’t all that expensive so I was starting to wonder if Mr. BBM put some kind of special wife-checker feature on my card or something. But that wasn’t the case.
A couple days ago, someone made a 96 cent charge to our card that went undetected. I rarely have cash in my wallet, but I don’t ever charge 96 cents But today, someone tried to charge $2700.00 to our card, which is just what you need when you’re in the process of buying a house, some insane amount of debt on your credit card.
The charge was denied due to the sizeable number and the location (It sounded like some online sports betting place). Our cards have been canceled and new ones will arrive in the mail. Unfortunately, they won’t make it here by the time we leave for vacation, so go ahead and place another check in the sucktastic column for BBM and her family.
As a warning to anyone who might be a potential victim of stolen credit, beware of small charges on your card that can signify larger problems to follow. And if you’d like to buy me something else from Ann Taylor Loft to make me and my leper arms feel better and forget about fraudulent poop-heads who try to wreck people’s lives, then please, by all means, do. I’ll take one of everything (I already have the white sweater).
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