allaboutwomen

I'm on my feet a great deal more per day. I've been working at the Micky D's for over a month now. I walk there most days, and most days I get a ride home. Got word that I'll be signing up for health insurance soon. Yay! That will be a BIG help.

Last week, on Wendsday, I was at Wal-Mart. We were finishing checking out, and I remembered I had forgotten bannanas. So, I told my husband I'd meet him at the car. I needed bananas because if I don't up my potassium when I work out, I tend to cramp real bad the next day. So, I bought my bananas. I was stepping into the street, thinking I was at the wheelchair slope, with flat ground. I wasn't. I stepped off the curve and fell. I did a lot of falling in my youth, and some more into highschool with my drama class, and still more into college with my self-defense class. I fall pretty well. The trick is to keep moving until the energy is dispelled. I kept rolling, trying to get rid of all my falling momentum, but I had a whole lot of it. Finally, I stopped, on the sidewalk. My knee was scrapped, and my flat back had taken a lot of the fall. But I was alright. I reassured the one other customer who saw me and came to check on me (bless her). I went to the car, sat down, and looked at my knee. Not bleeding, but definatly scraped. I was alright.
So, I went home, ate a yogurt and a banana, and started my freshest work out regimine. No pain in my knee. Pain in my calf muscles, oh yes, definatly. When my legs got too tight and painful, I stopped, stretched, rested until I was normal, and started again. My 100 minute workout was done in 5 to 10 minute intervals. But I didn't injure myself, and I did complete the whole work out (that time was including my 20 minute warm up and my 20 minute cool down). Next day, I did the same thing, only I was working in 10 to 15 minute intervals. Friday, I had to work, and I decided to do half in the morning, with a 10 min warm up and a 10 min cool down. I'd do the rest that night. Well, I did the morning half, but ended up sitting around at work, talking with friends that night. The rest of the week, my knees started feeling achy. The weather snapped into coldness. I've had similar problems the past two years, with my weight and the cold stressing my knees. I didn't think anything of it. Everynight, my friend called: his wife has left him, and he needs friends, so he was talking to my husband and me. (In this sentence, "me" is actually correct). He'd talk to us into the wee hours of the morning (correction, he talked to me, my husband didn't want to be bothered), so I'd fall asleep late, and then I'd have to wake up for work, so I didn't do my exercises. Just as well, I figured, "My knees hurt too bad, I don't want to stress them too much." Cut to Tuesday morning. 3 AM, I'm on the computer and the phone. My knee is slightly bent, and elevated. I sit up, bending me knee, and shooting pain courses through my joint. I straiten it: more pain during the movement. I hobble to the bedroom. Every time my knee shifts, there is pain, and I can't keep it bent, that causes pain. I had to keep it strait. We go to sleep. The problem is, everytime I fall asleep, I shift, and the shift causes me to cry out, waking myself and my husband every five minutes or so. I have no idea what caused it, but it was incredibly bad. We went to the ER, and I kept thinking about the bill, hundreds of dollars dancing in front of my eyes, dreading yet another drain on my finances. But it occurs to us what I've done to my knee in the past week: injury, exercise, and cold. We answer the doctor's questions, she tells me I do have fluid on my knee, but not enough to drain, and I probably didn't tear anything. She recomends ibeprophin. She starts bending my knee, and I hiss, followed by lamaz breathing. The doctor blinks. "I'm going to perscribe something a little stronger than ibeprophen that you can take for the pain. That way, you can get some sleep, too." So, she gets me the prescription, recomends a sports doctor incase I don't heal, and gives me a note for the day, saying I should probably not be on my feet for so many hours at a time. Just keep moving the knee.

Well, the pain went away, and the swelling is slowly going down. I can still feel stiffness. I've taken this week off (planned 3 weeks ago), to work on house work, and to have some "me" time. I wonder when I can start walking cardio wise again. Probably when my knee doesn't feel so stiff, eh? I keep moving, limited, but I'm not using a walker anymore. I just get up, go shopping, cook dinner. But I haven't pushed it, haven't stood on it for over an hour strait at a time. I hope sometime this week, I can get back on schedual.

PS My cat was 30 lbs when we got her, over two years ago. Yesturday, we had to take her to the vet for a routine problem. When they wieghed her, they said she was pretty light. I asked if she was at a healthy weight. "I'd say so!" answered the vet tech. FatCat now weighs only 12 pounds and some odd ounces. My cat has lost over half her body wieght. Good job Cat! We're going to have to find a new name for her.

PPS: The ER was temporarily doing a no insurance copay, so it is possible that I don't owe anything else! Especially since I didn't require x-rays or anything else.