Tales from the Steppes

2004-01-20

1:39 p.m.
my fingers runneth over

My phrase for day seems to be "Don't touch the Playstation, I will take care of it." It seems that I say that about every 5 minutes. This morning I was awoken by one of the things I like to hear the most - a child saying "Mom I threw up all over my bed." Why do they not address this information to their father? I mean, he was the one up and getting ready for work, not I. Fortunately, I am able to give instructions on just what one does after throwing up all over one's bed while half asleep. Kind of says something. So that was one child (MM) that was staying home from school. And then it was a call from daycare saying YM had puked all over his classroom. Miraculously, he did not get any on himself. Probably didn't want to get any on his outfit. Two done, one to go. With my luck, she will wait until tomorrow to get sick, thus costing yet another day of work. I realize that sounds bad, but given the fact that the other two have not thrown up either since I picked YM up or told MM he had to stay home, I don't feel like they are really that sick. It's not even a 24 hour bug, more like a 24 minute one. Just long enough to screw up your day.

Not that I particularly care about missing yet another day of work. It was the appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon this afternoon that I am bummed about canceling. Every few years I decide that I want to try and run again. So I go find a knee doctor and he looks at my knee and says something to the effect of "Yep, it's screwed up and no I can't fix it." And then he sends me off to physical therapy tra la, tra la. The physical therapy often does help and since my kneecap does change alignment, I can not skip the first step and go directly to PT, since it changes what they can do.

I find the variations in the above scenario fascinating. For example, one doctor told me that if it hurts when I run, just don't run. WRONG! Another one told me that he would help make it better, but that if I insisted upon exercising that I would just have to understand that I would pay the price for it. That I can live with. So I know nothing about this new doctor except that he specializes in knees and sports medicine. Sounds promising. The real reason I am seeing him, as opposed to another similar doctor, is that I really like one of the physical therapist that he uses. She is the same one who worked on my elbow after I busted it about a year ago. "Busted" being the medical term for that particular incident in my long and storied orthopaedic history.

There are probably many people that do not understand my desire and need to run. It is not logical and it hurts. Why do it? For me, it is absolutely ingrained in my personality and who I am. I started running when I was 7 or 8 and continued all through my long soccer years. When the rest of the team was running sprints, I was sent out to run miles because playing keeper requires a different kind of stamina and speed. In the rare month or two that I was not playing, I had to keep running because it was death to get out of shape. Maybe not death, but a Bad Thing when tryouts came along. Even when puberty came along (late) and the tradeoff of my speed and form for hips and breasts was forced upon me, I still ran. Never competitively, but always for myself. It keeps me marginally sane.

But ever since my first injury and surgery in my late teens, it has been problematic. At first, I thought it was me. Well, I guess it wort of is. If I were not hyperelastic, I would not have required the type of surgery I had. But the fact is, there is a reason the Hauser procedure is no longer performed. In at least 28% of the cases, it results in the patella being incorrectly aligned. In my case, it allows me to walk, albeit with an uneven gait, so it was a succesful surgery in that regard.

My hope and goal is that I will someday be able to run a marathon. Don't ask why, it just is. Think of it this way. Most of us hit each other with silly sticks for no _real_ reason and have goals related to that. This is similar, but a little different. The latest issue of Runner's World has an article about two guys who completed 7 marathons in 7 days. Very inspirational. They are both in their 50s or 60s and have health problems. One of them lost fingers and part of his foot to frostbite. He had a massive heart attack and bypass surgery. A week after getting out of the hospital, he was running again. I can't remember what was wrong with the other one. But if these geezers can run 7 marathons, back to back, and complete them in sub 5 hours, then I sure as hell can.

Happy thought for this rant:

I tricked Beorn today. No mean feat. He ran outside when the door did not shut well and so I had to try and get him back in. He is not a dog that you can run down since nya nya, he can run faster than you. And he lets you know it by dodging and wheeling all up and down the street. So I didn't even try. Today, I tried a new tact. First I threw the cat outside, thinking that she would immediately run back inside, which she did, and the dog would chase her, which he did, but not all the way into the house. So then, he is standing at the open door, watching me, but if I try and shut said door, he will just run off. So I go get a dog treat and offer it to the cat. She looks at me like I am a complete idiot but I know if I offer it to the dog, he will sense a trap and run off. We have done this before. I throw it up the stairs after the cat and the dog could not stand the thought of the cat having that dog treat and ran up after it while I sprinted to slam the door. Amy 1 Beorn 0 Woohoo. Upholding the honor of humans everywhere against wily sheepdogs.