Body Parts

Last week, after dealing with the house drama for a couple of days, my left knee spontaneously started hurting. Really, I did some stair climbing, moved a few boxes, pushed a few things around, and generally did what I usually do on any given weekend day. Except it was Tuesday.

When the plane landed, I woke up, and began walking though, my knee felt like I had run a half marathon. Pain with every step, clearly swollen, I pretended like nothing significant happened. Well, nothing significant happened!

I mentioned it to Wood when I climbed in to bed at 12:30am on Wednesday morning. And noted that it still hurt, and still was swollen, when I woke up Wednesday. Boo.

Throughout the week it hasn't really improved much. The more active I am, the more swollen it is, the more pain I have. The sexy compression socks I usually reserve for recovery after running plus the compression sleeve over my knee are amounting to exactly zero reduction of swelling. And when I say swelling, I mean visible under my pants swollen.

As of yesterday it was feeling a tad bit better. I went to my appointment because I'd be charged more to cancel without 24 hours notice than to just show up. The doctor poked around but didn't see anything obvious and merely told me to do traditional RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) plus NSAID's for up to two weeks. And to make an appointment with an orthopedist. As soon as I stood up to leave, the pain was back again. Grr.

The day got away from me and I didn't schedule the orthopedist appointment yet. They were closed at 5:30 this afternoon. I'm going to work early tomorrow so they'll get me first thing.

Despite the obvious downside of having a bum knee, it's not as bothersome an unknown as the differences in my mammogram. That is weighing much more heavily on me right now. I've told Wood, you, another friend, and my two favorites at work - only because they are in the same office - and I suck at keeping secrets lately.

Wood says not to worry. My friend says that the diagnostic people are very conservative. I say I'll get through whatever comes my way. I believe that to be true. But I also know I have this different sense that urges me to do certain things because of what I "know". The decision to go to the big University medical center was because if I ever needed to be treated for Cancer, I'd want it to be there: cutting edge diagnostics, research center, excellent outcomes. Weird, I know, but it's what went through my head. So I listened.

Now, I wait, knowing that a few days won't make a difference in the long term. Besides, I've got many other body parts to manage.