Two cancellations in two weeks. I mentioned in a past post (I’m not sure which one) that I was really looking forward to a Spring Break trip to LA to visit friends and meet their new baby, and the music festival La Onda in May. Well, last week La Onda emailed ticket holders to announce that the festival is not taking place. There was no explanation, they just cancelled it. This past week I confirmed my dates with my friends in LA and they told me that I couldn’t actually come that weekend because a friend from Canada was coming with her baby then. I’m not sure how our wires got crossed on the dates, but now I have nothing to look forward to before summer break and I will admit to be pretty bummed about it.
Snagging a coveted wait list spot. The husband found a really cool Marine Biology overnight camp offered by UC and in the 24 hours we spent deciding if we should spend $3K on it (yep, you read that right, $3k for ONE WEEK of camp), it filled up. But last week a spot opened up and my husband was the first of 70 people on the wait list to snag it. Nothing like a scarcity of spots to make me feel better about spending an insane amount of money on a week of my kid’s life.
Hard drive data retrieval. Speaking of feeling okay about spending a lot of money on something, the guy at the data retrieval center was able to get my photos and videos off my busted external hard drive! I’ve been dragging my feet on taking it in for half a year because I was worried it would be a lost cause, but after a week he was able to retrieve all my data! It was $150 for a new hard drive and $350 for his services (a great price from what I’d read online), and I was happy to spend that $500 to get every photo and video I’ve ever taken of my kids (and cats!) back.
The 12yo tested! The 12yo’s belt test is done! He worked really hard for the past two weeks to perfect his form and review the massive amount of techniques he would be tested on. He was at the dojo for over ten hours this week! Luckily it was conference at school, so he got out early all week and had a little more mental and emotional bandwidth to handle that amount of training. He had a good attitude about it, for the most part, and only “crashed out” at the very end. I appreciated when he demonstrates resilience, because that does not come naturally to him.
No news isn’t necessarily good news. My knee and shoulder are… exactly the same. They don’t get worse, but they also don’t get better. I know I came back from my previous knee injury, but this feels different for a couple reasons. That was an acute injury and I knew how it happened. The injury was identified and I did a ton of PT to strengthen the muscles around my knee while the injury healed. This is an over use injury. I have no real understanding of what I was doing to cause it, and while I know it’s my meniscus that is inflamed, I don’t really know what to do to avoid further inflaming it. The doctor basically told me to stop running, hope it eventually felt better, and call to get a cortisone shot if it didn’t ever feel better. But is a cortisone shot really going to help me in the long term, if I don’t know how to correct whatever made it start hurting in the first place?
Ditto my shoulder. I’m not sure what caused the initial ACJ injury and I don’t really know how I aggravated it again. I feel unempowered and hopeless, and like I’m heading toward, “I have a bum knee.” I really don’t want to be one of those people who is not doing the shit she wants to do because she “has a bum knee.” I know it hasn’t been that long (almost two months?), but I just don’t know how I can expect it to get better if I don’t know what caused the problem in the first place. If it doesn’t feel better, I’m clearly not avoiding whatever aggravates it, and so they cycle continues.
Workout rut. On a not unrelated note, I’m in a bit of a workout rut right now. It’s been really hard to get started this week. Some days I can’t think of anything I’d actually like to do, and then I get started and that feeling never goes away and I just have to slog through whatever I picked. In the past when I wasn’t super excited to start a workout, I’d usually feel a lot better about it once I began. That has not been the case recently. It’s a bummer and I’m not sure why it’s happening and I’m not sure how long it will last. Exercise is usually my emotional escape, but lately has not provided that. I’ve also been feeling kind of low emotionally, so maybe that is the ultimately problem. I’m just not sure why exercise isn’t helping me feel better mentally and emotionally like it usually does.
The loss of spring break plans is hard. I am so sorry!
On top of exercise issues for you it is nasty.
Have you considered trying Pilates? It comes to mind as it has been used by people to recover from injuries so they should know how to work around and work gently with your injuries.
Unfortunately as we age, it takes longer to recover from joint injuries (and they happen more easily) than when we were 12 and 18.
At over 81, I am reminding myself of this as it can easily take 6-9 months or more to regain walking easily after knee or hip anger pain. But I am back to over 10 thousand steps again after fears that would never happen. What does your Kaiser PT say?
I am lucky, I know the majority of my peer group is not walking that far, with steep hills especially. And so far I have not had to get bionic joints. They do not sound fun and the pain to qualify for them is massive. I think today there is better help for this sort of injury, but it takes huge amounts of pain, effort & time……
Congratulations on 1. being #1 on wait list and winning. 2. for getting your photos back (any advice on not facing that drama again?) And, 3. your son’s hard dojo work and test wins. He should be very proud of himself.
Hope yearbook is doing well!
Thank you for writing today. I really really appreciated today’s warmth and FINDING A NEW POST FROM YOU. You always make me smile and remind me the sun rose, the birds sang, the grass grew, the rivers ran and the snow fell.
SO IMPORTANT THESE DAYS. Huge appreciation.
I just recently did a bunch of Pilates classes on Peloton and liked them. Maybe the next step is to pay for classes somewhere nearby.
My doctor did not recommend PT so I haven’t seen anyone to recommend what to do to make my knee feel better. They sports medicine doctor was basically like, welcome to being 45! What made your knee hurt? Try to avoid that! And come get a shot if it doesn’t stop hurting. His attitude felt dismissive and his solution does not interest me so that is probably a big part of why I’m feeling so down about it. And knowing all the joint stuff will just get worse as I age is not helping…
request PT apt. At Mission Bay Kaiser Justin SAM is very good. What you do now makes a huge difference in next 40 years! NOT OK TO SAY 45 MEANS WELCOME TO KNEE PAIN!!!!!
Ugh on the shoulder and leg injuries, that is HARD. I have pain in my shoulder from a fall 8 years ago, and I never thought it would still be here. My doctor said I have arthritis there, so I guess there’s not much to be done for it. So I don’t push it too hard, but I do weights. It’s weird that you don’t know what caused your injuries…but inflammation is probably the issue, and it’s tricky, right?
I’m sorry about your spring break plans. It’s so wonderful to have something to look forward to, and to lose that is frustrating.
Congrats on figuring out the camp for your daughter, for your son’s belt test, and for getting your photos back. That’s worth the money for sure.
My X-rays showed that I don’t have arthritis in my knees but then he said that in my left knee the bones are a lot closer which is guess is what indicates arthritis? I even asked how you would see arthritis in an X-ray because that confused me (I would assume you’d see it in an MRi) and his explanation didn’t clarify it for me. It was an ultrasound that showed the inflammation of my meniscus. Of course he could not tell me why it was inflamed and he didn’t have any suggestions either. That appointment sucked, honestly, and I think that is part of why I’m feeling so bummed out about. Because he gave me pretty much nothing.
That doc is wrong for you and your joint issues. Joints can be tough and x-ray alone will not answer. Cortisone as Ernie says has problems but there are other things that can help. He may be perfectly good for some people and some problems but not for you and this issue! AND GOOD PT WILL HELP!!!!!
Be sure to tell Pilates instructor which joints and your problems! Some instructors are ex PT’s…. worth asking for credentials etc. They should help you avoid aggravating joints so they can heal.
Dang- the two sets of cancelled plans would sting for sure. I bet you’ll plan something else to look forward to.
My husband usually does not agree with recommendations for a cortisone shot. He’s not home so I cannot ask for the cliff notes reason but I think it has something do with cortisone maybe damaging good tissue-? Don’t quote me. Good luck with the injuries. It sounds frustrating.
I am not that interested in the cortisone shot to be honest. I’m not sure why but I feel like it won’t help. Maybe I know people who tried it and it didn’t help? Or I read that it’s not great? I honestly can’t remember but I know I’m not super interested in getting one, which makes me feel even more helpless when it comes to the knee pain. Because it doesn’t even feel like there is a next step.
maybe a strength ‘program’ like the Caroline Girvan one (free) or something on Peloton? Assuming it’s modifiable to protect joints/etc – injuries are TOUGH so I am sure that’s playing a huge role. Maybe even something like a yoga challenge?
Im already doing strength on Peloton. I was considering the CG program you just wrote about after I read your post. Maybe I’ll try that. But I need to be careful with lower body weights right now. I’m not sure what exactly aggravates my knee, but after I do a lower body circuit it’s usually upset for a few days… I also started doing Pilates classes last month and I really like those. So I’ll definitely keep doing them. But there are days when even the thought of a Pilates class is totally unappealing.
And OMGGGG that camp! I think we paid 3K each for 3 WEEKS of monday-friday camp last year. I am sure it will be absolutely amazing though!!
(3K each kid, not each week!)
I honestly can’t think too hard about how much we paid for that. It’s nuts. And it’s partly in service to her reapplying for that insane internship she didn’t get this past fall. So I’m paying $3K for her to have a better chance at getting an unpaid internship that requires crazy amounts of driving at insane hours. FML.
My experience is that some doctors are dismissive of PT. but good PT is basically a miracle for changing imbalance/weakness and figuring out why joints hurt and what to do about it. So definitely find a PT and keep looking until you find one that helps. I’ve had chronic pain for much too long but finding a good PT has been SO helpful.
Yep- those are the worst injuries. Much better to have something definite like a sprained ankle, that hurts like hell and is all swollen up, but has a predictable timetable for recovery. I’m thinking you need a different doctor- there must be a solution. I know, it’s frustrating.
Congrats to your son! And congrats on getting a spot in the camp- it must be AMAZING.
I hope you can figure out something else for spring break!
Oh gosh, I hope you feel better soon. As you may know, I started exercising back in January and now I love it, although stuff I do is laughable, I still crave it on days that I don’t move.
Also, 3K for a week of camp is insane. I’m sorry you had to deal with that.