Sunday, April 20, 2014

Richter Kid is Still Going, but Not as Good as the Energizer Easter Bunny



Wow, how the time has flown!  Sorry for my lack of posting on the blog.  The last 6 months have been tough – really tough – as I’ve been trying to deal with the slow recovery of the knee since surgery.  To be honest, my attitude has not been positive enough that I felt I could write anything without it coming off as depressing.  And I figured out of my 6 readers none of them would want to read that crap.

But I’m managing, despite not being anywhere near 100% recovered yet.  I still have dull pain even in elementary activities like walking, putting on drawers, picking up a sock on the floor with my toes, or swinging my leg into the air to play it like a guitar.  How does anyone have any sort of quality of life without those things?!  Ha!  Anyway, because of this, I haven’t attempted even a light, short jog even though the doc said it was okay to give it a whirl.  I just can’t see the point in trying to if it hurts to even walk, and it’s not like I have any races on the calendar to hurry up and get ready for.  So, I’ll just postpone putting on the sneakers until the pain finally goes away or I run out of patience.

 So, I'm hooking myself up to another TENS thingie.  The increased blood flow is, at the very least, kinda soothing. 

Biking is going okay and swimming is going great.  So far, I’ve not put enough into them though to start getting my fat ass back into some sort of shape but with spring finally here I hope to start shedding some pounds.  I look like I ate the Bruce that went to Kona, and he must have been pretty tasty.

 Well, this kind of behavior certainly isn't helping!

On May 5, I’ll get another MRI to see if the cartilage is growing the way it should.  If it is, I expect the words from the doc to sound something like, “Tuck the string in and deal with the pain, Richter Kid.  It’s gonna hurt for a few more months but the surgery is working.  Damn, you're such a whiner.”  If it isn’t working, we’ll have to move into another surgery which sounds like it will involve stealing cartilage from another place somewhere on me or stealing it from somebody that’s done using theirs.  I’m not too keen on using some of my own.  I seem to be struggling to keep what I started with in the first place.  So, I've been keeping my eye on the obituaries for anyone that's been described as particularly "cartilagey."  They never seem to use that word though......

I suspect the verdict will be that I just gotta suck it up and let the new crop of rubbery stuff grow, though, if you're taking any bets.

If another surgery is on my horizon though, I don’t know how I’ll muster the gumption to take another 6 weeks on crutches for recovery.  Poor Angie if I do……

 I decided to soil myself today.  After planting all this stuff, I carried the pots to the patio in back.  It was with great shame that I had to tote the bigger pots halfway, give my knee a rest and then carry on from there.  Unbelievable!  If I ever run again I will spend every mile thankful for just being able to, no matter how slow the pace is.

The only other thing is the knee is a little bit swollen and misshapen, but it doesn’t seem to scare kids away so I guess it’s not that bad.  In the spirit of Easter, I think THIS would scare kids away more than my blob of a knee.......


At any rate, I haven’t given up yet and I intend to get back into triathlon as soon as I can.  Besides, I’ve run through all the sports that don’t rely on good knees in my head and I can’t come up with any that suit me other than darts and arm wrestling.  And those two just aren’t gonna cut it for Richter Kid.

 At least I've been keeping my competitive juices flowing by playing the good ol' game of War with army soldiers and a tennis ball: set 'em up, we'll knock 'em down!  Compliments to Dave and the Mirra kids for being worthy opponents.....

Happy Easter everyone!  It's wonderful to be alive and forgiven!  Thanks for supporting.....and I consider reading my useless drivel of a blog support.......





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