[Dejibo]

So, what are you guys doing?

Wii?
Yoga?
Chair stretches?
leg lifts?
mental exercises?
arm rolls?
chasing the cat?

I am so proud each and every time one of you tries, and reaches just a bit further. Its so hard, and no one knows better than we do, so, keep at it!

[Erin524]

I may not be exercising for awhile.

Hurt my knee a little bit a month or two ago. I thought it was healed. (kind of thought I strained it or something kicking while swimming)

My aunt thinks that I might have torn my meniscus. (aunt is a nurse practitioner)

My knee started hurting again a little bit last week. It kept feeling more and more sore over the weekend. Yesterday morning, I was climbing up the stairs to go talk to my dad, and I felt something pop in my knee. Didnt think anything of it at the time, and after I was done talking to my dad. I went back to bed. (it was 5am, I'd been up most of the night because of a bad storm)

I woke up around 11am yesterday with my knee really hurting. It kept waking me up. I was trying to catch up on some sleep that I missed, but it wasnt happening. As yesterday wore on, my knee hurt more and more. Last night when my aunt came outside to sit with us in our front yard (she lives across the street) I was sitting there pretty much crying and trying not to scream from the pain. She asked what was going on. I told her. She looked at my knee and said that it sounds like a torn meniscus.

She went home and got me some EdemaWear. Which is a special sock that doesnt have toes or a foot in it. It compresses your leg (or your arm, or torso...whichever part of your body that needs compression) and helps relieve swelling. The hospital that she works at is where the stuff was developed. She was one of the people who helped research the EdemaWear and she swears by this stuff. Said they use this for all sorts of things on the floor she works on when patients have swelling in their extremities. (she also tore her meniscus a few years ago, and used this for the swelling in her knee) She came back over and showed me how to put on the EdemaWear.

It helped the swelling some. Didnt help all the pain, but since some of the swelling went down, it's not making me cry as much. Before she put the EdemaWear on me, I couldnt bend my knee very much without screaming. It hurt so bad last night.

I'm pretty ticked off about this. I want to go walk at the gym. It just hurts waaaay too much, and now I need to go to a doctor and get my knee checked out and probably get some physical therapy for it now. (trying to avoid surgery if I can). I'm really really mad about this.

It still hurt enough last night that I didnt sleep well. Our new cleaning lady got here this morning at 830am, so now I cant go back to bed because of the noise. I feel sick from the pain in my knee this morning. At least I can walk on it with the swelling under control from the EdemaWear. (the EdemaWear is so unattractive looking)

Guess I'm going to go call my doctor now. Then I'm going to go take some ibuprofen and cry.

[SallyC]

So sorry Erin..

[dmplaura]

Sorry to hear it Erin I hope you find some relief.

Walked 30 min today. I only got about 6 hours of sleep last night (long story, not to bore everyone). I still plan on doing 4.5-5km tonight, but we'll see how I'm feeling by then.

[Erin524]

Ok, went to the doctor today. (well, the PA) and she checked out my knee, took a couple of pictures.

She doesnt think the meniscus is torn. She thinks it's inflamed tho for some reason. The PA liked the idea of the EdemaWear sock, told me to keep using that, and she wrapped my knee up in an ACE bandage (which promptly fell off as soon as I left the building)

I went and got another EdemaWear sock that's a bit bigger to go over my knee. The PA said I could put an EdemaWear sock over my knee and that might be just as good as an ACE bandage. She did say that I should rest today and use ice. (so I'm RICE-ing my knee. Got my ice, a foot stool to elevate things and I'm going to sit and crochet for a bit)

She thought that I could try walking on the treadmill later this week (thursday or friday) and to do about 15 or less at a low speed on the treadmill if my knee can stand it. PA said that if it's still bad by saturday to call her on monday and she'd get me some physical therapy for the knee. Told me to be really careful, since she didnt want the meniscus to tear if I over use it or if I turn and twist it too quickly.

I'm just glad that she was pretty sure it wasnt torn yet. But this makes me wonder. If it hurt this bad and was just inflamed/sprained, then I dont want to know how painful a torn meniscus actually is. I was crying from the pain. (about to start crying now. Leg hurts) so I guess if it were torn, I'd either be unconscious from the pain or screaming all sorts of swear words.

Really relieved now. I get to keep using the treadmill and exercising. The PA was happy to hear I'd been exercising and that I wanted to keep doing it. Hope my knee is better this weekend and that I wont have to go back to the PA for anything else knee-related. I was panicked that I was going to have to have surgery or that they'd tell me to stop using the treadmill. I actually really like walking on that. It would suck to give it up.

Yay for ice cubes. Gonna go chill my kneecap now.

[dmplaura]

Did my nightly toning last evening, then a 4.5km walk, then another 30 this morning. Work soon.

It was cold this morning!!! I was glad I trusted my instinct and wore my heavier hoodie out, it's only 11C (52F) out there, and I was out an hour ago. My hands were frigid! At least the sun's out, so I made sure to walk on the East-facing sides of the roads and kept in the sunshine as much as possible.

[Dejibo]

I agree! it was chilly outside. The thing is that heat affects me badly, but cold can be just as concerning, as I stiffen up, and get clunky and spastic. I did manage to get in 2.5 miles. I made half of rabbit hollow and decided to turn back. its not worth the price I would have to pay later on, so I am back home, warm and lazy. Maybe I will do some Wii today.

[SallyC]

We can't seem to crawl out of the 90s here!!!
Even exercising inside in the A/C, you can feel it.

Irene will bring cooler temps (80s) for the remainder of the week....I hope that's all Irene brings.

[ewizabeth]

Yesterday was in the low 70s and cool so I worked out in the yard for 3 1/2 hours. I mowed with the push mower and made nice diagonal stripes across the lawn. Then I pulled weeds in the flower beds and cut back some perennials. I picked several huge bags of veggies in the garden, cukes, tomatoes, zucchini, bell and hot peppers. I had calluses on my hands and aching feet and legs at the end but it was awesome. Today is hotter though and our AC is broken, waiting for repairman now.

Get well soon Erin, give that knee some rest so it can heal.

[dmplaura]

30 min this morning out walking, 20 minutes of toning at suppertime. Did a quick walk to the store and home to pick up a Sudoku book (about 20 minutes).

Ever have a day that you just felt "blah"? I was having one of those today. I'm just tired of everything and need change I think. Or a vacation. Yeah... a vacation!