Monday, Sept. 10, 2012

Life has a funny way of reminding me that I’m not super woman, the bionic woman and that, yes, my body is riddled with an intricate webbing of old injuries that if I don’t tend to them and take care of my body, will flare up and give me grief.  Having to move at the accelerated rate I did due to finding and buying a house with such a quick escrow, I was forced to push my body—and all of its old injuries—to its max.  A gamble that I was hoping I wouldn’t regret. 

I don’t regret finding this house, having a whirlwind escrow (the likes of which were an absolute breeze due to a magnificent host of outstanding folks), or packing and unpacking so quick.  But…now I’m paying for it. 

My body held out all the way up until the day before I had to move.  Up until then, I had been pulling 17 to 20-hour days that involved tons of physical exertion.  Some might think that due to my routine physical fitness regiment that would prove no problem.  But lifting heavy boxes and bending over again and again to pack and then unpack items isn’t something my body is used to—no matter how much exercise it gets.

So, the day before I had to move, my left knee—the better of the two—gave out.  Well, it tried to, but with the movers arriving early the next morning and my being needed to direct where things went, not to mention finish packing and begin unpacking, I refused to listen to how my knee was failing and forced my way through the pain.

I managed to make it through the move—all thirteen hours with the movers.  And then I still had stuff to attend to before being able to get off my feet and turn in.  Course, I was smart enough to pack my icepacks where I’d be able to readily find them once moved.  And it felt—and has continued to feel—divine, each and every time I the ice freezes away my pain and help to diminish the swelling of my knee.

Though I’m nowhere near able to run right now and getting up and down prove a real chore, I know my body well enough to be sure that if I could just get out and walk that would help heal my knee.  I finally got the chance to do that today, spreading my walk over two separate times, one earlier in the day, the other in the evening.  In between, I iced my knee.  All told, I managed six and two thirds miles!  By the time I was done with each walk, my knee was visibly less swollen and easier to manipulate.

Yay!

So, would I have done things differently to avoid messing up my knee?  If I’d had the chance, I would have enjoyed taking things slower.  As it was, I tried to mix up a solid day of physical exertion followed by a day of on-the-phone-moving stuff that needed to be addressed.  My hope was to give my body a day off every other to let it heal in between my having to push it so hard.  That helped—a lot. 

For now, I’m taking it easier than normal.  It’ll likely be several weeks (if not longer) before I’m able to run again.  That’s okay.  I’m in no hurry.  In the meantime, I’ll enjoy taking long walks on the beach in the soft sand that forces my body to compensate by twisting and turning in ways that only running mountain trails could provide.  So, though I’m moving a bit slower and rather limited with how I can get up and sit down, I’m making the best of it—a smile planted firmly on my face.