last jan/feb i hurt my left knee. i had parked too close to the garage wall and i couldn't open the car door wide enough to do max's car seat buckles. so i hopped in the front seat and thought i'd just turn around from there to do it. i used my left foot as a pivot to push and turn around, only i caught my foot and it stuck straight while the rest of my knee kept twisting. i knew i did something to my knee, but it wasn't super painful right away. i sort of shook out my leg and kept going on with my day. by the end of the day, though, i was in sooooo much pain! i couldn't walk, put weight on it, straighten it, or sit down and bend it without breathtaking pain. i was running 3 days a week with a friend of mine at the time, and i took a break for 2-3 weeks due to the pain. i started running again only 2 times a week, and something was definitely off, and some runs were definitely more painful than others, but i thought i had pulled something, and i just needed time keep on trucking.
i finally stopped all activity in may--well, i should say all impact activity. i stopped running, but i started walking with another friend, started swimming (which was actually still painful, ironically!), i still did yoga, and i still did jillian's 30 day shred video (i just stopped a particular move if i felt pain). then i went down to absolutely nothing for 4 weeks. my knee still hurt. and i couldn't do other movements--pivoting hurt, i couldn't squat down without pain, and then bear weight on it when getting up again, i couldn't cross my left leg over the right, and i couldn't sit cross-legged on the floor. it definitely made life with 2 active boys a little more difficult. so..after 8 weeks of rest with no improvement, i decided it was finally time to see a dr. within 2 minutes of talking with him, he knew what i'd done: i tore my medial posterior meniscus. (the back inside side)
i went in for surgery yesterday morning and have spent yesterday and today with my left leg elevated, iced, and "recovering." (hence all the blog updates! ha ha!) the dr. sent some photos home with us...looking at them makes me feel like when you go to the car shop and they come out saying, "this is your filter, and this is what a clean filter should look like; would you like me to change it?"
exhibit a: the outside of my meniscus, the good one.
exhibit b: the inside, torn meniscus. the top two show the jagged tear, and a portion sticking out from where it should be. the middle two are mid-procedure, and the bottom two are at the end, all cleaned up.
exhibit c: the diagram the dr. drew for david to show how much of the meniscus was damaged and what he cut off (the shaded in part is what went out the window).
all in all, the dr. said i should be running again by the end of the month!
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