In my other life, I am a physical therapist. Most people assume I am in orthopedics since I love sports, but I am actually in geriatrics! I have 96-year-old patients! It is sooooo awesome. I mean, there is no better time spent than time spent with an older adult. They know so much, give great advice, and really bring such a sharp, beautiful perspective to life. My patients give me marital advice (I need to cook more...ha ha!), stress advice (let it go), and every other piece of advice under the sun. I love it! I was going to do a work-rant to vent a little, but now that I am sitting down and writing, it is really not needed. Work is unhealthy and overly-stressful, but I will survive. I had a mis-manager, and she has relocated. I also stood up to a co-worker today that has been a really mean bully. At the ripe age of 32, I just don't have time for mean people any more.
Physical therapy is awesome. I am glad I made a career change early and did not wait to go back to school. It has come with some stressors that I did not anticipate (like productivity demands that are impossible to meet ethically) as well as enormous physical fatigue at the end of the day. I now know that compression socks were not invented for triathletes, they were invented for health care providers that are on their feet all day lifting 200 pound patients out of bed.
When I do have the energy to fit in some training time, I am paying close attention to the knee status. It has started having some major swelling within the past month in the back. Obviously the knee is something that is on my mind often- sorry to belabor the problem.
This is a pic from a week ago with some moderate swelling in the back of my knee. It has actually been a lot worse than this. And no, that is not a muscle, as one friend asked. That is fluid!
This is a new symptom, and I have never had fluid in this area. I am not in pain at this time, though, so the doctor is not concerned (although I am). I did not have any swelling post race this weekend which is promising, and I am determined to listen to my body, keep the easy days easy, do less, and race sparingly.
Yes, I said do less. It is my new mantra. I will run the least amount needed to enjoy the sport. This is opposite of my old self that wanted to run all of the time. Healthy knee= Happy Damie. I am now 5 months out from surgery, so I hope to continue to see some progress and good stuff as the knee enters those final stages of healing.
:) is the weekend here yet?
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