More Than You Kneed to Know

My knee is doing a lot better. It's difficult to get into a left front stance, because of the pain, so I don't do that. It's also prohibitively painful to get down on my knees, so no bowing-in ritual for me. And I've given up jumping jacks and other high-impact exercises for a minimum of three weeks, to give that cartilage time to recover. I'm healing up faster than I thought I would.

My only worry is that the abrasion I sustained from the fall is not healing up well. My uniform is made of thick canvas, so when I fell, my knee scraped a very sandpapery surface inside my clothes. I have kept the abrasion covered by a giant band-aid, because it hurts too much to leave it open and have it rub the inside of my jeans. The wound has not yet completely scabbed over. Every time I take off the giant band-aid, it has soaked up some goo from the wound. I think I am going to call the dial-a-nurse sometime soon.

Another problem is that due to the circumstances of being sedintary, holding an ice cream party, and taking anti-inflammatory drugs, I've gained 1.6 lbs. This is particularly frustrating because I had only 0.4 lbs to go before I reached my goal weight. Some of that 1.6 lbs is clearly water retention. I have noticed that this drug has caused me to feel extremely thirsty. I have been drinking a lot more, yet retaining it because there has not been a marked change in number of trips to the bathroom.

I think I will be able to resume walking to work next week. I won't be up to full speed yet, but I think I will at least be able to get some of the exercise in.

Last night I taught karate class and I was able to work around my disability. The most advanced student in the children's class volunteered to lead the bowing ritual, which was a very good idea. So she came to the front of the room and bowed for me by proxy at the beginning and end of class. She also volunteered to count out the jumping jacks. I stood and watched as they did their jumping jacks. Actually, that is a charitable statement. I was amazed by how half-heartedly they all did jumping jacks. I chastised them because it was really pitiful. Also, because I couldn't do the stances very comfortably, I got a chance to do more observing during the across the room exercises. I saw so many lazy not-so-long stances, and cat stances with too much weight on the front foot! I was horrified, especially because they were coming from the most advanced students!