Day 22 Updated Knee

My life is not about training. It is not about my knee, or running, or triathlons, or exercise. My blog tends to be because I originally set this blog up to journal my training for Ironman Florida. But, I think my life gets lost in translation at times with the blog. Yes, I am going to talk about my knee and running...later on. But, I am a person with a real life that has nothing to do with training most of the time.

• I am drinking vodka and orange juice right now. Because I can.
• I read 123 pages of the Kite Runner today sitting in the doctor's office. I love a good book.
• I threw the ball with Rooney today and let the dogs snuggle on the couch with me before Dave the enforcer got home.
• I just bought 2 bags of candy- jelly belly and spice drops. Then the girl at the check-out counter told me she was on a diet. I felt like the biggest fatty, but proceeded to open both of them when I got home anyways.
• I did not exercise today.
• I have talked to my dad, mom, and sister today. I think more than once for each.
  
• I am already out of phone minutes because I gab so much on the phone to friends- and I still have 12 days till the new period rolls over.
• I wrote about Down Syndrome and Cystic Fibrosis today. I also did a 3 month follow up evaluation with premature twins.
• I ate dinner and watched goal recaps of the Championship League games with Dave.
• I am listening to and recommend Carter Burwell.
  

I say this all to let you know that in the span of a day, I do much more than train. I work, love, plot, grow, hurt, think, and wonder. I sometimes feel my personality may hide under the race reports and training days. I don't train because I am addicted or have nothing else in my life. Running, soccer, triathlons, racing, training...I enjoy it. I choose to make it a bigger part of my day than maybe the next person....or smaller, depending on who the next person is. For me, my life is not about work. It is not about school or degrees. It is not about trying to be smart, cute, thin, wealthy, charismatic, or accomplished. It is about having a great day with great people, wherever that may be for me.

So the knee.

Vocabulary words from the radiologist today during our 20 minute phone conversation about my MRI: OCD, bone bruising... bone edema...cartilage injury...fragmented..white on TT imaging ...spurs...osteophytes... Baker's cysts...articular margin...tibial plateau...anterior compartment... lateral compartment...chrondomalacia...divet subchondral...

I am not taking any of this lightly, especially since the radiologist got straight off of the phone with me and called my dad. Everyone is pretty concerned. They cannot find any one thing that is causing me medial pain, but what they can find is a really bad problem with my lateral condyle...the exact same one that I destroyed 4 years ago. (Recap- the injury that put me on crutches non weight bearing for three months with another full year of no running and a complete ruination of my soccer life. that injury). But now there is some more extensive damage in the anterior compartment, tibial plateau, and patella. Throw in a gazillion bone spurs, osteophytes, and multiple Baker's cysts, and... I think the doctor was going to cry when he gave me the report he was so concerned. While any number of these things are benign, OCD lesions with bone bruising, edema, and fragmentation are not.

Did I tell you I did the whole Florida Ironman pain free? Every single bit of training- pain free. (besides the mental anguish of the trainer on the track + 800 intervals). Thank you again, Jen Harrison. :)

Today I got a short-term solution for pain, a cortisone shot. I also had a good handful of listening ears today. I am going to bring in my 3 sets of MRIs from 2005 and we are going to compare them to this new MRI to see if there has been more degeneration and how much concern we need to have.

Long-term, we are going to look at a 10 year, 20 year, 50 year plan for me. The docs are going to consult about the damage and decide what to do next. Because that is really what this is about. I want to be a healthy person for the rest of my life. Never mind the jellybeans and spice drops.

It is humorous, though, to think that they still can't figure out why I am having pain in the medial joint line of my knee. And to be honest, I can't figure it out either. Maybe the cortisone will figure it out, though :)

And, my spirits are up. I am a busy girl with a clinical rotation to finish, a bachelorette party to attend in Nola (whoo hoo Christy!), and some candy to eat. I also plan on beating this injury just like I do every single other one. So everyone HTFU and have a great week. :)