Random Bloggin by Miles: 2004

Friday, December 24, 2004

Ouch!

About my knee:

It is my left one, and it happened about 3 PM PST last Friday 12/17/04 at the Sunnyvale Skate Park. I was taking a long late lunch and it was a beautiful day. I had only been skating about 5 minutes and hadn't warmed up, stretched, etc. I went up a wall to do a frontside carve and realized I had taken the wrong angle and need to bail (jump off). What I was trying to do wasn't hard, or extreme, and I've done it a million times before. When I jumped off, I landed awkwardly on my feet, but with most of my weight on my left leg with my knee straight, not bent. Then the pain started! The knee felt like it buckled, and bent back the wrong way. I fell down and rolled to the bottom of the bowl, laid on my back, and shouted "ouch" several times. I started dragging myself on my back by my arms over to get my board when one of the other old guys came down to see if I was ok, and got my board for me. I stood up on one leg and he pushed me from the bottom and an young guy grabbed my
arm to pull, and I got hoisted up out of the bowl with my board. I was able to limp over to the side of the park, where I threw my board against the fence and cursed the gods. I took my knee pad off, went to the car, got my knee brace, put it on, then put the knee pad back on. I walked around trying to feel just how bad it was. I pushed around for a couple of seconds on the board, and the knee felt ok, then it felt like it was going to buckle again so I took all my pads off and put everything in the van, and then took some videos of the skaters at the park, as I watched my knee swell up. One thing which disappointed me off was a guy (about 18) who has been a skating acquaintance for at least 5 years, was at the park and saw me go down then limp around. He never came over and said anything. He is an extraordinary skater with great style, but must have some issues. Oh well.

Went to the clinic on Saturday, and then my regular doctor on Tuesday. I have a sprained knee. Some fibers from some tendons have torn, so there is bruising. I can still put weight on the knee. When the doctors manipulate the knee it seems very stable. The X-ray shows nothing is broken. The prescription is physical therapy 3 times a week for 3 weeks and then access the progress. If progress is slow, get an MRI and decide if surgery will help. I am confident, I am going to heal and recover before the end of January, so I can start skating in February again.

I intend to skate until I am at least 55!