Torn

My dear friends, loved ones, and family members (God I hope they haven’t stumbled across this site), things ain’t looking too good over here. Things ain’t looking good at all.

I told you that I hurt my knee last week lifting weights in the basement. I figured I’d take it easy over the weekend and I did; didn’t even mow the lawn. But here it is, a week later, and the swelling is still there. It isn’t painful or anything but that’s what concerns me the most.

Back in 2001 I was in what you might call a serious car accident. I don’t know what the medical profession’s description of “serious” is, but I’m going to guess when you loose your spleen, one kidney, crack some ribs and break both your tib and fib it’s pretty serious (I was laid up for just a bit). On top of that they found that I had torn the MCL on my left knee (the outer ligament). Well, I’m pretty damn sure I tore it again. Sucks.

The MCL (as far as I’ve been informed and experienced) more or less provides stability to the knee. I can still push in the clutch on the Jeep without a problem but the knee wants to buckle when I’m standing or walking. And it doesn’t hurt at all which is why I think I ripped it off cleanly; if it was partially torn I’d be feeling it. So don’t worry about me for now, I’m pain free.

But the inevitable is just around the corner: knee surgery. I am not looking forward to this. The last time they repaired it the pain was pretty bad. Every time I’d try to move the leg I’d get a shooting pain like someone was sticking you with large diameter needles over eight inches on the side of your knee. Yeah, I was hitting the nurse’s call button every four hours to get the pain killers (I was stuck there for a week while they tried to figure out what kind of infection they had found in the knee). Hopefully this time I’ll be in and out so I can sit at home and enjoy some quality soap operas (puke) on the new TV.

I don’t know what I’m going to do after the surgery as far as getting to work is concerned. While I can easily push in the clutch now I most definitely won’t be able to for quite some time after the surgery. The doc’s will set me up with one of those massive knee braces with the hinge on it and everything but I’m sure they will adjust it to limit the range of movement. So we’ll see how it goes. Trust me, with nothing else going on in my life, I’ll keep you informed.

(Speaking about the TV: you know how people spend $100’s on special cables to hook up their digital cable and sound systems? Well, I went to Radio Shack and bought a six foot RCA cable to hook up the stereo for $9 and it works great. The first night I popped in The Italian Job and watched the last 20 minutes where they’re flying around in the Mini Coopers. Pretty sweet. And then last night I was watching the Brewers (Fielder hit numbers 49 and 50) and every time they’d hit a low foul ball I’d jump when the four 10” subs went thud when the ball would hit something off screen.)