My knee still hurts. A lot. I had Ryan pick me up a brace at Target yesterday, and that helped a little with walking around the office. That’s about all I can do for walking though. I tried going to the YMCA on Tuesday (or maybe Wednesday?). It’s only 2 blocks from my office, so I thought it would be ok. I went, did some gentle riding on a stationary bike and some stretching, and then walked back to work. And my knee hurt worse than before I went. The bike riding and stretching were ok, but the walking there and back were not good. Since then, I have talked to a friend who is a physicians’ assistant and used to work in sports medicine. He advised doing some leg strengthening exercises, not stretching, and avoiding ibuprofen. Apparently you want your body to do its thing re: heating up while repairing itself. Which makes sense. So I’ve been taking tylenol and staying off my leg as much as possible (he said to avoid doing things that hurt, and walking at all hurts). I plan on doing the leg exercises when my knee stops hurting so much.

 

I feel like a wimp. So many people run and don’t have problems like this, and I wasn’t running that hard. I feel like it’s ridiculous that I am in this much pain for this long. That people probably think I’m either faking it or making it seem worse than it is. I hate that idea. I want to be better.

 

My other knee and back have started to bother me a little because of how I’m compensating for my left knee. I’m not really sure what to do about that other than try to maintain good posture and stay off my knee. Wearing the brace seems to help some too, as I don’t limp as badly.

 

Anyway, sorry for dumping all of this. I said earlier today, someone needs to start an email address where you can send all your whiney messages and they just get trashed. I can’t email myself because I know that I’m just talking to myself. It doesn’t work. And I don’t want to direct this whining toward anyone who would feel obligated to read what I say. So I’m dumping it here instead.

 

Other than that, there isn’t much going on around here. I’ve been rendered lame, and Ryan’s been taking care of me and James. Good thing we have him around here. James is being a typical 18 month old (it still boggles my mind that he’s that old already). He is alternately adorable, hysterical, and immensely frustrating. Sometimes he is all 3 at once.

 

On a closing note, what is with all the mosquitoes in our house this summer? We’ve never had this problem before, and they are positively annoying. Ryan thinks they might be coming in where the air conditioner is attached. Wherever they are coming in, it’ll be closed up soon enough. The evenings are getting cooler and the daytime temps are coming down, slowly but surely. Fall is coming. I’m not sure if I’m happy or sad about that. On the one hand, football, chili, hot cider, pretty leaves, snuggling under blankets. On the other hand, end of camping weather (for me, anyway), less amenable weather to being outside with a toddler, and daylight is leaking away.