On Friday I was offered what I thought I wanted: knee surgery.
I said "no."
It would be 6 mos to a year of living in physical therapy (which I've already had a taste of and determined to be - at least for me - crap.) I could only work my upper body at the gym -- which just wouldn't work as my favorite class has ultimately become RPM and 6 mos to a year without RPM is just not happening.
I told him the PT he prescribed didn't do jack for my knees (2 hrs a day, 3 days a week), but the little girl I see ONCE a week for half an hour at the gym is actually helping. He said ok, deemed that progress and set me another appt for 6 weeks. He said the offer would still stand later if I changed my mind.
I need another year to make up my mind (I'm making another decision right now that will make even my knees take a backseat, but I'll talk about that when I'm ready.)
A year seems to be the magic number.
If I can change myself, it will be realizable in a year.
There's too much happening right now. I've got follow ups with 4 or 5 other differents kinds of doctors right now. Someone I deal with through work actually asked what was going on with me and it's hard to explain: I've always had aches and pains and things that could be construde as problems, but once I turned 30 - I don't know - they just seemed more real... like real adults should get things like aches and pains looked at.
I went to a chiropractor for the first time - also on Friday.
My pelvis is out of whack - which very well could assume part of the blame for the way my knees are.
The visit was some scary stuff: this little skinny guy dangled me off a table and then rammed my legs up in to my body. Because I didn't have any idea what was about to happen, when it did and I heard all my bones (inside my head? outside? no idea) crack, I screamed. He jumped back sort of surprised, he thought I knew what was about to happen. Nope. I don't even think if I'd been given a play-by-play of what was about to happen to me... I don't think even then I could have prepared myself for that.
So he did that to both my legs and then he ran this wand thing down my spine and poked me in the back several times. Each time the spot was incredibly tender and he'd ask me how long those places had been bothering me as well. I didn't have a clue. I had to try and explain that I live in constant agony because of my knees. When one part of the body is shouting so loudly, the other hurty bits don't really get heard.
So he popped a bit in my back as well, but I think he thought that was enough trauma for a noob and let me go.
I see him again on Wednesday.
Doug came to the gym with me on Friday. He's had a check up and knows now that he has high cholesterol and so seems to also be acknowledging a change is necessary in how he does things in his life as well.
We took Combat.
It made his head hurt.
I'm going to show him RPM and (hopefully) Pump and then if he doesn't like those either, I guess he won't join after all (he had said that he wanted to, but not if all the classes do is make his head hurt.)
I hope he'll join... I hadn't even entertained the idea of being able to do this with him, but now that he's hinted it's a possibility, I'm totally elated.
I now have 36 stickers. The goal is in sight!
:-)
