Saturday, March 20, 2010

The bad news is...

I got a call from the doctor's office yesterday. The results from my MRI came back. I'm even more broken than I was guessing. I have a stress fracture in my left tibia (shin) and a tear in my meniscus (the little cartilage doodad between the bones in my knee joint.) I think I spell meniscus a different way nearly every time I type it. If anyone knows the correct spelling and wants to clue me in, feel free!

I'll find out prognosis on Monday, but from what I was told over the phone it sounds like I have to wait for the fracture to heal and then I'll probably need surgery to fix the tear. Since the internet is such a great source of terrifying and depressing information, I was able to find out that it can take up to a year or longer for this sort of stress fracture to heal. Great. Crap. @#@!$#@!!! And THEN surgery!!!

The worse news is...this is all going on in my LEFT leg...otherwise known as my previously GOOD leg. What does that mean? Well...it means that I've been hobbling around with a brace on my left knee...putting most of my weight (which is still enormous!) on my BAD right knee...which is starting to hurt like a mother f'er. So...double crap!! I'm scared to even tell the doctor about it...but I guess I'm not going to have a choice. The way this is going, I'm going to end up in a Jazzy with a little flag before the end of the month.

On a lighter note...

The GOOD news is...The website that I found to log my meals and whatnot (www.fitday.com) has been nothing short of a diamond mine of information and tools. So, in spite of being temporarily disabled, I'm still losing weight. I'm down another two pounds since I got back from fat camp. The forums on Fit Day are fantastic and the people there have given me some great ideas about activities I can do without damaging my knee(s) any further.

All in all, I may be down, but I'm not out.

The battle goes on.

2 comments:

  1. OMG, did this happen at camp or was it a pre existing condition? I thought you were medically supervised. Now I am really scared..................I just had my big toe joint rebuilt, and it's NOT bionic. I will be 8 weeks out from surgery when I hit camp. Pounding exercise will be out of the question. I think I am going to practice my pushups now.

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  2. Hey Kim...If it was pre-existing, I didn't know about it ahead of time. :/ I would have to assume that it happened at camp. There is a doctor there, but he only pops in to take your history or if someone has a problem. He's not there every day. I would HIGHLY recommend talking to your doctors at home before you go and getting a list of what to do and/or not do before you go. For me, when I go back, I'll be avoiding and and all high impact exercises until I've lost a LOT more weight. I learned my lesson the hard way. Fat people shouldn't run or do jumping jacks...that's for certain! I'd rather burn a few less calories in the pool or on an elliptical machine than injure myself again. I don't hold the people at Real Life responsible...I should have listened to my body. The problem is, I've been listening to my body say things like, "I'm hungry. I'm tired." for so long that hearing it say, "I'm getting hurt...be careful!" didn't really register as something I was supposed to hear. Live and learn!

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