Knee Update 2

Back in January I injured my knee playing indoor ultimate and made a big fuss about it in this post. Six months later and my knee was still not back to full strength. Whenever I cut hard I risked straining it again and having it swell up for 4-5 days and losing all flexibility until it finally got back to "normal." A few weeks ago I went to a sports medicine specialist, took x-rays and chatted with him a while about what has been going on. Turns out I have a torn (partially) ACL in my left knee and require reconstruction surgery. Crap. I've continued playing on my summer league team and have only one game left for the season. I will be resting for fall, winter and probably next summer until I can fully heal from surgery - about six months. First, I need to get a job with proper health insurance as the shit coverage I have now would most definitely not cover my surgery and recovery. And that won't happen until October at the earliest when I return from the Superior Hiking Trail.

Here's hoping for one finaly knee injury free ultimate frisbee game!

Knee Update

I blew out injured my knee Friday night playing ultimate frisbee. My defender ran me over and after a tangle of legs and feet I twisted a bit too far and heard my knee go pop. There was maybe a dislocation, some hyper extension and a sprain. I really don't know. It hurt(s)! I gimp about here, gimp about there. Somehow, I was approved for health insurance effective today, and I went to the doctor. Over the weekend I assumed the worst and thought I had torn a ligament or damaged my knee in someway where I thought I'd have to get surgery (or at the least an MRI-$$$$) and was worrying about being uninsured (now underinsured) and what all this stuff would cost and whether I'd be covered. Bad knees run in the family and I kept thinking about what had happened to my dad when he was my age. The dreaded phrase kept coming up in conversations with my friends: pre-existing condition. After seeing Doc, it looks as though things will be OK. I have to wear a goofy brace around my pants to immobilize my knee. It's called a knee immobilizer (how appropriate!). Also keep up the icing and ibuprofen regimen. We'll see what happens after a week of that but my knee tested pretty strong. Can take pressure and can be flexed in all directions. Just have to wait for the swelling to go down and the fluid to drain to get my range of motion back and work through the soreness and tight muscles.

Whew! I thought I may have been out for the season but if all goes well I could be playing in a couple of weeks (optimistic?)! Just gotta be careful about re-injuring it even worse.

Time Flies

In addition to being a sweet hardcore band on Indecision Records in SoCal, this is pretty much what has happened over the last year. The last time I experienced an October 24th was in 2005. Last years was gobbled up by the flying spaghetti monster who lives at the International Date Line. A year ago yesterday I was on my way to Australia for my second working holiday and just the same as London, a year later seems only a few weeks later. I can constantly remind myself with memories, products (ginger beer!) and photos from this era, as well as getting ready for Pat to come visit soon enough. And facebook, sweet sweet facebook.

A time to catch up. The first weekend in October is Marathon time for the Twin Cities. I ran the TCM for the first time and had an absolute blast. While not being able to sleep in on a Saturday isn't the best way to start a weekend, all was made well while 7 thousand people ran screaming underneath the Gov't Center building in downtown Minneapolis. I saw my family and friends, live bands and spectacular views of the TC. I had trained all summer (and had been running in London and Sydney) for this. I finished! That was the utmost goal. And with a time of 5h20m. I thought I would do a bit better, but given the conditions of that day, I am more than happy. Upper 80s and 88% humidity. It seems that everything that could go wrong during the race did, and a lot of it happened for the first time: the top of my left foot hurt like hell, I developed massive blisters on the balls of my feet at my 13, I cramped up at mile 16 and walked almost the entire length of miles 17-25. Once I hit that last leg down John Ireland Blvd. I had the biggest, goofiest smile on my face and could not have been happier.

The next weekend took us down to Rochester, MN to visit a friend. What can I say about this? We watched MTV and went home. Gossip Girl! Like OMG LoLeRz! OK, there was surely more than just that. Hit up some bars, went out, played soccer, talked sports, politics, people, etc. I had the opportunity to get pregnant. I think it happened at the Aquarius when I was dancing on one of those elevated platforms above the dance floor with some girl. Pure sleeze fest... but fun! One other interesting anecdote: my very own automobile made it there and back without breaking down! I'm beginning to even out the number of times broken down outside the city vs. made it back in one piece.

Last weekend saw me at the other end of the state: Jay Cooke State Park. Went camping with some friends and had a weekend of high fives, beer drinking, hiking, sleeping on the ground, camp fires and trail mix. We had been intending to go all summer but never made it. An open weekend for all of us came up and away we went. I've recently read in the paper that the Superior National Trail is nearing full completion of its 239 (?) miles. After walking the Overland Track, walking from (basically) Duluth to the Canadian border has its appeal. As does the Appalachian Trail. (And many, many walks in Aotearoa =))

One of the bits about the post summer/fall season is league ultimate. I play on a fantastic team I wish I could take with me wherever I went. For three years it has been awesome watching us grow from a mostly inexperienced group of people struggling to even have a full line in bottom brackets to an athletic and focused team. While we have less than a winning record (3-4) we have played like a team 7-0, competing against the top flight teams this year. There have been weeks where all I wanted to do was make it to Sunday and play, then spend the rest of the week going over that weeks game and thinking about the next. Frisbee-centric? Maybe.

Now my options grow rather than shrink. As previously blogged a few months back I was thinking NYC or NZ as the next move. Perhaps I will stay around in the TC? Maybe start planning those walks mentioned above (they have been in the back of my head for years now). Perhaps back to Australia with the new Visa laws in effect? What an amazing quality of life there. (Never mind the increased coal and uranium mining, wheat harvest shortfalls, petrol shortages in Victoria, severe drought, water shortages for 98% of the people, etc.) Vancouver? Somehow back to London? We recently took Myers-Briggs tests for work, and while not having changed personality preferences since the last time I took the test (college), one particular pitfall/weakness caught my eye. It basically said something that I fail to "close the book" on my decision making process. I keep things open too long as I gather data to make decisions on plans of action, and therefore may pass up potential opportunities. I am also poor at setting goals and at making plans of action to achieve a goal I do happen to set. I read that and think it is spot on in all aspects: work, life, relationships (girlfriend(s)!). So there is a goal. Figure shit out! But do I really have to? I've got it pretty cushy (though not ideal in terms of my beliefs) at the mo. Aside from the lack of health insurance.

Did not expect to ramble on this far, so good for me! I do eventually intend to get around to following up on some of the other items from below. Soon!