31.1.07

taking my legs for granted

As usual it's when something isn't working right that we realize how much we value it.

It all started the other night when I got home on concert day (Monday). As I neared the house I thought, gosh the front of my right lower shin is feeling weirdly tight. I didn't think anything more about it and it didn't shout at me much over the next couple of hours, then when I put on my dress shoes (fairly low heels quand-même) I had another twinge, this time on the fronts of both lower shins, but less on the left. I just thought it was from walking to school really fast that morning (the morning it was 20°F out). Again, no further thought. During the concert (which went quite well - yay) and dinner with the gang after, it still just felt kinda tight. After I got home the left one had stopped hurting altogether and the right one was veritably screaming bloody murder at me so I took some Advil and decided it was tendonitis. Grudgingly thought of how many days this would interfere with my otherwise only moderately bitchy existence :) and went to bed.

Yesterday I walked to school after taking more Advil and it hurt the whole time but didn't feel any worse. During part of the day it came and went as I was sitting at my desk working on (stupid frigging) tests and getting up periodically to go to the mailboxes or bathroom or the bookstore downstairs.

Adrienne came in and worked in the eve and after the French film was done (which I was facilitating) I caught a ride with her to my house so I could bring Hal (my Honda) back in since I knew I had a few hours' work to do still. Fast forward to when I at last was heading home, test writing, formatting and printing safely behind me (I'm loathe to admit to you how late it was when I finished, suffice to say it was no longer "last night" and more like "early today"): I'm walking over behind the pharmacy building to get Hal and about halfway over there I had a gigantic ZINNGGG!!!!! in my LEFT knee. (The shin thing was on the right, you'll recall.) Now I have a pretty big pain threshold but initially this brought tears to my eyes then after a couple seconds it backed off to just Quite Tender. It kind of felt like it needed to pop (or am I the only one whose knees do that once in a while?) but it didn't just go ahead and do its little pop like normal, opting instead for causing me some pretty impressive discomfort.

It hurt all the way home (gotta love the manual transmission when your left leg is mad at you! what fun!) and up the very tiny but capable-of-causing-major-pain-in-disgruntled-knees incline up to my front stoop, then upon entering the house it dissipated (about 90% anyway) all of a sudden. A few minutes later it came back the same as before and stayed that way til I went to bed. More of the same this morning except that with the weight of my backpack on the way to school it was much more painful, plus it's kinda hard to walk when both legs are screaming to be favored (the perhaps-tendonitis my right leg was back full throttle as well).

Arriving at school the shin thing remained the same all day; the knee thing was intermittent all day, lasting up to an hour or so each time and going away for about the same time each time. There is a slightly swollen spot that is sore to the touch at about 8 o'clock (if you picture my poor little knee as a clockface - a clockface of course that would be sold in some kind of weird body-parts-are-kitsch! boutique).
I caught Adrienne for a ride home and ever since being home it has been just slightly tender but none of the Major Pain has returned when I'm moving around or otherwise. If it's still holding off tomorrow I guess I won't make the run to urgent care that I was planning with Hal, esp. given my abhorrence of all things medical. Just the fact that I'm thinking of going to the doctor might tell you that it really was hurting like hell, seriously, my blithe account here notwithstanding.

In fact I have no idea why I'm not in a worse mood about it -- I was in tears this morning on the way to school, partly when it would Zing! a little stronger every few steps, but mostly because it scares the shit out of me to think of anything starting to go to pot on this heretofore quite dependable body of mine. Call it Early Middle Age Fatalism. Or call it pessimistic health and medical industry viewpoints caused by losing Mom and Dad to chronic maladies for which each was taking 400 different meds and undergoing myriad interesting procedures for 15 and 10 years, respectively.)

So there. The shin thing is about the same tonight, maybe 20% better. So I might have been right about tendonitis after all, but I usually (that is maybe 3 times a year) get that on the inner lower back of my calf. It usually settles down after a couple days. This one's taking longer so who knows.

Anyway I am hereby officially thanking my legs for all their plucky grace and dauntless work over the years that has gone unsung. In general I've been pretty proud of them but it's true I probably haven't been giving them their due lately. We have been having some fun gym trips that I know they appreciate however. Maybe they will feel inspired to try to feel better tomorrow, but of course any knee health vibes you want to send will be more than welcome.

3 commentaires:

Nathalie a dit…

that sounds so painful! I hope it stops zingin' soon. I know what you mean about doctors. You go there to let them tell you what's wrong, but in the end, they tell you what you already know: it's painful, and a paracetamol can help at times.
Get well soon, and oh, congrats on the concert! I'm happy it went well!

Susan Helene Gottfried a dit…

Ooh, better go have those puppies looked at (even by a trainer at your gym). Just in case...

I slipped on a very small patch of ice on my driveway last week. Didn't even fall.

I was going to see my sports med guy (if you find a doctor as good as this guy, you'll stop avoiding the doc, too!) on Friday, so I had him take a look.

Probable cartilege tear.

They *can* do a rather uncomfortable MRI, but the only 100% correct way to tell will be through surgery.

Ouch.

Applecart T. a dit…

what can i say. but the frown. do you sit too much? have you been running? legs are magical things, indeed. my hips can go out from mere sleeping, but i tell myself it's because i'm bad to my body and don't exercise it. when i was bussing a bit this past season, i noticed that walking is not what i wish it was. that all shoes cause pain, during and after, when the "where'd the shoe go?" cramping begins.

they make wonderful ergonomic chairs. . .for $900 or so.

did you figure it (them) out/is it gone?