It’s That Time

Last night, HH worked some unplanned OT. When he got home, I was knocked all the way out. I didn’t even hear the phone when he called to tell me about the OT.

This morning, my hip was ridiculously sore, so I laid in bed and tried to stretch it out. He woke up and massaged it a bit for me, then pulled me in for a cuddle.

Then, is his gravelly, sleepy voice he says, “can you please…”

Now, I figured this was going to be some household related request, like picking up something for CH, etc.

Oh, no.

“Can you please… (dramatic pause)…not come to bed with this UGLY t-shirt on?”

That would be this t-shirt here:

Really, comedian?!? I just started laughing and said, “get offa me!” and got out of the bed.

Clearly, it’s time for the football season to be upon us.

No More Room

Hey peeps! Sorry I haven’t been blogging much. I definitely do not have room for much more right now.

1. CH arrived safe and sound last night around 10:00pm. Let the step-parenting begin! As you know, I have no children of my own…nieces and nephews are only partial preparation. LOL! Instead of focusing on the changes to my lifestyle and schedule, I am framing it as the chance to have a positive affect on a young adult’s life. We shall see how this pans out over the next 3 years.
2. Ortho surgeon consult pending. My MRI showed a focal defect in the cartilage of my knee. Apparently some folks can function smoothly and have no issues, but I think it’s safe to say that ain’t me. LOL! I may or may not need surgery. I’ll know more after my consult.
3. Sunday was the Ramblin’ Rose Tri in Rock Hill. I had such a good time volunteering! I am really psyched for our race in September. If I’m unable to do it I’m going to be really sad.
4. at this point, Tri training continues. Now that session 1 is done, they can focus solely on us session 2 athletes. So our swim practice has been extended to 2 hours each session. Pray for me. LOL
5. PT continues for my knee, 2x per week.
6. I have not cracked that CPCU book in a minute. I need to hop to it.
7. my friend Rashad gets married in September. I ain’t bought nary a ticket nor booked my hotel. Why did I agree to be in this again? I said no more weddings. Him and his fiancé tag teamed me. I felt like I couldn’t say no. This is the last one! I mean it. LOL
8. HH’s sister also gets married in September…at a critical time in my Tri training. Did I mention there’s too much going on?
9. We are still up in the air with wedding plans. I feel like, fluck it. I’m good with the JOP. HH is still on a savings plan and says he can save the $ and he thinks I deserve to have one. I’ve told him at this point my deciding factor is whether or not I need surgery. If I do, it’s a no go. All my resources will be allocated to med bills. Sigh. I have a friend who is an event planner who is looking up info on non-traditional venues in Charlotte, which SHOULD be cheaper. I just haven’t really and much focus to apply to this. My concern is our family unit – me, HH and CH. the wedding is so far in the back of my head right now.

So, like I said, there’s no more room on my list for anything else to be going on. What’s new with you guys? If you’re a lurker, stop by the comments and say hello. I’d love to meet the 6 people who are reading my little blog. 😆

PT Again

This morning was my first visit with a new physical therapist for my left knee. In case you’re keeping count, this is my third course of PT.

He had me hop up on the table and take my shoes off. He squeezed my knee around the knee cap, and of course, it’s very tender. I laid on my stomach as well and he was down there moving my feet around, checking them out.

I sat up and he told me most of the things I already know:

1. My feet pronate and are close to being flat
2. I have a valgus knee – this is basically the scientific term for being knock kneed.
3. the pronation and valgus knee create awkward angles for my ligaments. Running puts tremendous force on them at the wrong angle.
4. my hip has been trying to overcompensate for the force on my knee, and that’s why it’s constantly sore.

The first thing he decided to do was make me some temporary orthotics for my sneakers. He melted down this plastic pieces and then pressed the warm plastic onto my feet. That part actually felt pretty good. Them he sat and molded them around my feet.

I have to get used to wearing them for a whole day. Once I can do that, I am free to use them for running. I can get permanent ones to the tune of $200 out of pocket. They’re made out of carbon fiber. If I want, they can make smaller ones that will fit in athletic shows and dress shoes. As for the temp ones, I have to be careful about not exposing them to too much heat. If I leave them in the car trunk in this weather, they will melt/lose form. Yikes!

About the running…he basically told me that the geometry of my body (the angles from my hip to knee to foot) make it so that my body is not suited for distance running. It becomes a wear and tear issue on my knee from trying to overcompensate. Training for that half in 2009 may have accelerated that wear and tear. I do remember my knees and hips being sore then, but I think my other injury issues overshadowed that.

This hurt my feelings a bit. I mean, I had already decided that I couldn’t/wouldn’t train for any long races at this point. But I do like to run for fitness and I tend to get the most benefit out of intermediate, slow runs of 4-6 miles. It’s one thing to decide on your own, but another to have that decision medically confirmed.

I told him about my current training with TIFL. I basically only run 2x per week. Longer runs in Tuesdays and only 2 miles on Saturdays. I watched his face and I really think he wanted to tell me to ix-nay on the running…but I’m sitting here in front of you with my Ramblin’ Rose shirt on for a reason. I’m serious about this triathlon. He told me to, “see how it feels” with the inserts. I will tread cautiously.

I was given the green light on all the swimming and biking I want to do. Of course! *kicks swimming goggles across the room*

Today’s PT started with ultrasound on my knee and them a 10 minute bike warm up (I need them to really do something about that awful bike seat, lol), followed by 5-6 minutes of the foam roller on my quads and my left IT Band. Hurt like the dickens.

Then back up onto the table for stretching. I cannot explain the stretch he did to simultaneously stretch my quad and IT band, all I can say is I thought my knee was going to crack! My IT band is so tight it’s ridiculous. I tried to do my yogic breathing during that stretch, but I haven’t been to yoga in 4 months. I wanted to kick this dude for the way he had my leg bent back and up. I felt like somebody had me in a wrestling hold.

Our other concentration will be in strengthening my abductor muscle. It’s been working overtime trying to help my knee and it’s pretty weak. I had to use an elastic band around my ankles and do various abductor exercises, at 3 x 10. I never could make it through all 10 in a set without pausing. My hip was on fire! I was close to tears at one point. The last exercise was side stepping with the band on, and a slight squat in my knees. More fire.

After the torture, I was back on the table for about 15 minutes I electrical muscle stimulation and ice, simultaneously. I was given a band to take home to do the exercises on my own, and encouraged to hit the foam roller often.

That’s my life, for the next few weeks. I go back on Thursday at 6:30am. Still waiting for the MRI results as well.

I can’t even pretend to know about other injuries/misalignment issues; all I know is what I go through. This knee issue is no joke. It affects simple things like walking from my desk to the copier. I’m just ready to get it resolved.

Random Saturday

• Today I had another great brick workout. I still have to work on changing gears with the hills. I can see why people go with a road bike rather than a hybrid. If we came down a hill and then back up, it was so much easier for the road bike riders to change gears. The mentor who led our ride was awesome and I’ll give myself kudos for keeping up with her on a hybrid.
• I decided not to be a hero and try to run the whole 2 miles after riding. I did 2/1 run and walk intervals with two of the mentors. We moved pretty fast on the two minute intervals. I need to get a beeping timer to use for those type of workouts.
• The knee is sore, but what else is new. Physical therapy starts on Monday, and I await the results of Thursday’s MRI.
• Today, HH and I were cleaning the house and listening to Anthony Hamilton. I don’t know what song it was, but it was catchy and a good one to dance to. I went and grabbed him and we danced in the middle of the living room. Best moment of the day. 🙂
• I realized I hadn’t talked to my mom on the phone in a little while so I called her. I got frustrated with the convo because I was trying to tell her what was going on in my life (triathlon training, knee Injury, wedding plans) and it was like everything I mentioned she had a “band camp” story about someone else. Can you just listen for two seconds instead of formulating your responses while I’m talking? This is part of the reason I don’t call as often as I used to…I get tired of just hearing complaints about people and the same stories. Sigh. But then I feel bad about NOT calling. Must come to a resolution on this. It was my dad’s birthday, and I realized I really just wanted to talk to him…just thinking about it makes my head hurt. It feels like he just passed away, but we’re coming up on two years.
• My stepson (that phrase still sounds crazy to me) will be here in 9 days! It’s going to be an interesting transition.
• I am really enjoying the new Dallas. I would’ve been mad if it was really cheesy. The cheese worked in the 70s/80s, but it doesn’t work now. I know it’s TNT, but it still catches me off guard when they cuss.
• I should be doing CPCU studies. The book is on the table staring at me.
• In the midst of that convo with my mom I found out some chick ran a red light and t-boned my niece while she was driving my brother’s SUV. It apparently hit the guardrail and flipped, but she was able to walk away with basically scratches. Thank God.
• I met my new neighbor today. She seems pretty cool. She was looking for greenways/paths to run and ride her bike. Might have a new person to exercise with periodically.
• I think I’m finally over this crud/cold that HH passed on. Yay!

What’s new in your world?

Promoted!

Today we had swim training from 1:00 – 2:00 pm. I had it in my mind that I’d work on my side swimming without the kick board. I figured if I could manage that in the shallow pool, then I’d have the guts to get into the big pool.

For those who aren’t familiar, this is a kick board:

Me and the kick board are like ebony and ivory. Yin and yang. Cephus and Reesie. If I have that thing, I can successfully side kick, front kick, everything. If I get tired from not taking in enough oxygen, the trusty kick board holds me up.

The times I’ve tried to side kick without the board, I’ve sunk. Sunk and stunk. So, yeah.

Today when I arrived, Ms Adrienne came into the shallow pool and was like, “lemme see your elementary back swim.” Lemme just say this is the only one I can do without the kick board. So, I swam down and swam back and she was like, “yep, you’re ready for the big pool!”

Damn.

Lemme tell you, I got in that big pool (which is six feet deep at its most shallow end) like, this is not life! But then they said we could do the warm up drills with the board. OK, cool. I set about kicking down 25 yards on my back, coming back down on my left side, going down again on my right side, and returning with the front kick and blowing bubbles. I was supposed to repeat that sequence three times as a warm up (!!!), but because I started late I only got to do it twice.

Then they said, “now we want you to practice your side kick and putting your face in the water, and them rolling back out to the side. But you’re going to do it without the board.”

*insert scared sh*tless face here*

Do what now? Let go of the board? Noooooooooooooooooooooo. Me and the board go waaaay back. Way back. LiKe babies and pacifiers.

So they took my board. I was sad.

“me and you, us neva part…”

And just as I suspected, I SUCK without it. But I didn’t drown. So, that’s a step in the right direction. LOL! Ugh.

I’m going to see if HH will come back with me tomorrow evening, and after I warm up with the board, I will have him work with me on my swimming without the board. We also have another swim session set up at a different pool on Thursday, with two ladies who are very good swimmers and teachers.

We shall see. As tired as I am during warm ups, I don’t know how I will race 250 yards, but I’ll get it done. Yesterday at our brick, Heidi told us that if we really can’t do it, we have a relay option (we’d have to pay more $), but a mentor could do the swimming portion for us. I really don’t want to use that option, though. I want to be able to do the whole thing.