Knee pain

My life is just one big injury/problem area. If it’s not my knee, it’s my heart. If it’s not my heart, it’s my back. If it’s not my back it’s my teeth! And now it’s my knee again!!!!

I have no idea what happened but my left knee (the one that was operated on 18 months ago) has been a bit sore this week. Then yesterday it started having sharp stabbing pains through it, on the inside of my knee right where one of the arthroscopy scars is. It got worse throughout the day and last night is was causing quite a bit of pain. I even dreamt about my knee pain would you believe…

Today every 5 minutes or so, I would get this sharp throbbing pain in my knee that would last for a few seconds and go away. Apparently from the look on my face it was obvious when I was getting the pains!

I don’t get it while I’m walking though, it’s really only while I’m sitting down, and given that I sit down at my job, by about 10:30am I was very much over it and booked myself in for the physio at 2pm.

The physio said that my left VMO was a whole lot weaker than the right one. She was impressed with the right one, and apparently it stood out, but she couldn’t even see the left one. My ITB’s were quite loose, which she was also impressed with and surprised about. She was thinking that my ITB’s were tight which was causing patello femoral syndrome. She thought that given that I’m just getting back into training that it was just tight, but that theory got blown out of the water.

So there’s not much strength in my left VMO, my glutes are really weak (which is also what I was getting told after my knee op), and my knee was sore when she was massaging over the main scar from my scope. So her theories were along the lines of (a) that either when I was jogging last week or walking on the weekend I may have just pulled something that was tight from scar tissue around that scar, (b) because the VMO and glutes are weak, getting back into training is just going to be hard on that leg while it’s weak, and I might have just aggravated something in my leg which connects to my knee or (c) I’ve twisted my knee somehow and just done some minor damage to a muscle or something either in that area, or elsewhere that’s referring pain to that area.

I also remembered that after my job last week my quads and hammies were feeling quite tight, so maybe that had something to do with it.

So she’s given me some exercises to strengthen my glutes and VMO, told me to massage over where the scar is a couple of times a day, and to make sure I keep my leg fairly straight, especially in bed, because I’m a side sleeper, and your knee can twist a bit in bed if you lie on your side, and you can put pressure on it the wrong way while you’re sleeping.

The pain was a bit better this arvo, less often and not as painful, so hopefully with a couple of little exercises it’ll be fine.

Chocolate Truffles

Sorry, this is more so I don't lose it. A friend gave it to me and said it's really good :-)

Chocolate Truffles

90g Butter
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
3 cups cocoa pops
300g Cadbury dairy milk chocolate
45g copha
1/4 cup granulated roasted nuts (optional)
90g milk melts


Beat butter & condensed milk until creamy, stir in the melted milk melts and granulated nuts, then place bowl in freezer until set. (more than 2 hours)

Roll mixture into balls (about the size of 10 cent coin) and roll in cocoa pops until covered. Place on baking tray (tray to be covered with grease proof paper) then put back into fridge while you melt the Cadburys chocolate and copha together.

Remove balls from fridge and dip one at a time into melted chocolate and copha. Allow excess chocolate to drain off before placing back on covered tray.

Leave in fridge until set. (overnight is probably good)

7 and a bit k walk

I met up with Aki yesterday to do a walk around Lake Ginninderra. We were going to swim afterwards, but my head cold certainly wasn't any better, and I think I have an ear infection, so I decided a swim was a bad idea.

But we did the 7k loop of the lake plus a little bit extra - we were going to go out along another path, but my ear was beginning to get quite painful as the drugs were wearing off, so we turned back after a couple of hundred metres.

We kept a pretty easy pave and my heart rate stayed at about 90 or so. I was tempted to walk faster because my heart rate was quite low, but I really have to change my attitude.

The doc says I shouldn't get my heart rate over 140, so my competitive nature makes that "keep your heart rate at just under 140 the entire time you train". I want to keep pushing the limits, but I have to just try to keep in my mind that I will never be able to get back to where I was, and I am getting back into it to get some fitness back and keep myself healthy, not to try and constantly push myself to my limits to prove that I can...

So hopefully we'll go again next weekend, and I'll try to make weekend walks a regular thing, if not with the lovely Aki (who's regular pace is a lot faster than mine!), then with anyone who'll go with me :-)

What the????

There was another tragic cycling accident this morning in Sydney with one cyclist dead, and another with "inknown injuries".

The way the Sydney Morning Herald has reported it is "Cycling accident causes M4 delays". WHAT THE????

Like the most important thing in that story was that the roads were slow for a while rather than a cyclist got killed. How freaking ridiculous. Like those pesky cyclists are always getting themselves killed and causing traffic delays.

SMH - think about the human side of the story, and the terrible loss that the cyclists family is feeling, rather than the precious traffic situation. Write a REAL story next time!

Bleuch - head cold

I've been fighting off a head cold all week. As soon as I lie down to go to bed I start coughing, and my the morning when I wake up I've had blocked up yucko sinuses, earache, sore throat and this cough. By the time I've showered, the sinuses are feeling better, the cough has subsided, and I'm just left a bit of an earache and sore throat.

My voice started getting croaky yesterday, and today I'm coughing (not too bad still, but annoying enough), have a sore throat, the earache is quite painful, the sinuses are hurting and my voice is very croaky. I feel fine otherwise. I could do with a nap, but that's about it :-)

I went to the chemist to get something to help the sinuses and earache, and he was about to give me stuff that he reckoned was the bees knees for sinusitis, when he asked if I was on blood pressure medication. D'oh!!!! Because most sinusy medication has pseudoephedrine which gets your heart rate up, it doesn't go too well with my Noten which is supposed to be lowering heart rate/blood pressure. So all I get is some nasal spray and some yucky medicine for my cough. Great...

Good to know to watch out for medication containing pseudoephedrine though!

I'm supposed to be going for a walk/swim tomorrow with Aki, so hopefully it doesn't get worse. If it stays just as it is I should be fine. We've also got to do a pre-inspection clean tomorrow, and I think Andrew would kill me if I was sick for that :-)

I'm a pony!

You Are A: Pony!

Who doesn't love a pony? You are one of these miniature horses, renown for your beauty and desired by many. Full of grace, you are a beautiful and very special animal, with a long, flowing mane that blows in the breeze.

You were almost a: Puppy or a Parakeet
You are least like a: Turtle or a GroundhogThe Cute Animals Quiz

I don't know if I'm known for my beauty, or if I'm desired by many, and I certainly don't have any grace, but I do have a long flowing "mane" that old ladies seem to think is so luscious..... :-)

5k jog - yay!

Woohoo! I went out at lunch with the aim to just go for a nice walk as it was a very pleasant 20 degrees. I had my iPod, so I was set.

Once I got out there, I couldn't get my fast walking heart rate over 100 bpm, so I decided to jog a bit. My easy jogging HR stayed in the low-mid 130's which was exciting, so I kept at it. I was jogging up the short side of the lake between the Kings Ave-Commonwealth Ave Bridges, so I thought I'd just jog to C'wealth Bridge, then jog back to work. At C'wealth, my heart was staying at the mid 130's still, and I was still feeling good, so I decided to do the longer side on the other side of the lake from C'wealth-Kings Ave Bridges. I walked the Bridges themselves as the incline always gets my heart rate going, but jogged the rest of the flat bits without stopping! I did stop for 5 minutes to say hello to Michael Still who had gone for a lunchtime ride, but that was it.

Average HR was 128, my max. was 146, I travelled about 5k, probably jogged a little over 4k of it, and took about 48 minutes (excluding talking time).