Peaceful Mind

I generally notice increased stress in my life when my exercise time is low.  Between starting a new job, helping with Shelby Angel, and being injured- there is no doubt my inner stress is shining through!  

I was excited to participate in my old workout plan this Sat with buddies Joy, Nancy, and Laura.  Dave was even surprised when I told him I was going to Saturday swim class followed by a bike ride.  He doesn't remember the last time I did that!  Luckily Joy just did and Ironman, so Saturday was all level 1, easy, and when it felt too easy, we went easier.  

All of a sudden, I started having this amazing string of luck on Saturday.  I was feeling good, and life was being good to me.  I even mentioned to Laura that things were just going too well with my day.    

So...when I got that old stressful feeling today over things that don't deserve so much attention from me, I wasn't surprised when a small run made everything better.  Yep- PROOF that I need to be running and exercising, not sitting around injured and stressed!  Exercise and running in particular give me a peaceful mind.  

And after struggling with the injury for quite a while now, I finally went to see another ortho doc on Friday about my knee.  The good news is he thinks my joint has a lot of life in it.  However, besides the obvious lateral bone damage, he thinks I may have an undiagnosed medial meniscus tear or damage (my original thought too) that will have to be repaired.  And, that really does seem to make more sense because I had just started playing soccer again when I injured my knee.  There is something really suspicious going on, especially with the two huge Baker's cysts and the fact that I can't get over the injury.  At this point, I have been reduced to just swimming.  Even with rehab and strengthening, I still keep losing muscle in my right leg- I have shut down in a neuromuscular sense.  

So, I had permission to get in a nice run today and tomorrow if I want and then I get an MRI tomorrow evening.   We will go from there!