Update from the cripple herself

Hi guys, just writing to let you know how I've been. Not too good would be the sum up.

As Brian was saying, I hurt my knee playing touch footy on Wednesday night. The game had only been going for about 5 minutes, and I had been playing quite well. I gathered up the ball from the play the ball, and started my run down the field at a fair clip. I don't remember if I tried to do a step or what, but I do remember hearing two clicking noises as I felt two places in my knee give way, then it buckled under me, and down I went in a screaming heap. The pain was quite something, I remember that. I was carried off the field, and ice was brought for me. For about 20-25 minutes the pain continued at an intense level, as I fought back tears. I've been trying so hard to get fit lately, and lose some weight, and this just seemed unfair, I hadn't been doing anything risky or stupid. Everyone was very concerned and helpful, which was nice. I did have a bit of a cry while they weren't looking, I was very shaky and I knew I'd done some pretty bad damage.

I called Brian to pick up some painkillers on his way home, then I managed with the help of a friend to hobble to my car and get home. I rang the physio office, but they were closed for the night as I had suspected they would be. I've hurt myself before, so I knew the drill for what to do until I could get to the physio. Leg elevated, ice on for 2o minutes, off for 20 minutes continuously, as well as a compression bandage.

I managed to get an appointment to the physio yesterday afternoon at 2.30. The physio I go to is located in my local gym where I'm a member. I joked with Brian that I'd actually have to use the lift I had scoffed at so many times in the past; I'd thought it was a bit soft doing a workout then using a lift to get back to the carpark instead of the stairs!

Anyway, karma, or something out there had a good laugh, as when I arrived, the lift was out of order! I stared at it in stunned disbelief for a good 30 seconds. Grimly, I looked at the two flights of stairs to go down. I can barely walk, so this was going to be a challenge. I made it, but man was I pissed that that elevator was out of action!

As for the physio, he thinks I'll probably have to see a knee specialist. My knee is quite swollen, and the muscles around it have shut down to some extent to protect it. This made it impossible for him to do some of the tests that would confirm if I've torn or merely strained a ligament. He mentioned that an MRI would probably be needed, or if I was claustrophobic about that they could do keyhole surgery to take a look. What a fab choice! All I know of MRI scans comes from the TV show House (although I notice Brian has put up a link about it, will have to have a read), and without fail in House when someone gets an MRI they start freaking out, or have a seizure that nearly kills them! Not that I think that will happen of course!

Anyway, the physio will see me on Monday again, the swelling should have gone done a bit since then, and hopefully my muscles will relax enough for him to conclusively tell what I've done to my knee. If it's torn, it could mean surgery, or it could mean extensive physio.

So with those ideas ringing in my ears, I'm at home for the next few days, doing all the right stuff with resting, icing etc, and having a stern talk to my knee. "Just you think about healing yourself young lady, or you know the consequences!"

While I don't believe in God or prayers, I know some of you out there do, so I'm hedging my bets! If you could put in a good word for me, that would be much appreciated. :)

What do I need?

Saw this over at what's new pussycat? and had to give it a go. It's called the Need meme. All you have to do is go to Google and type "[your name] needs" and see what it comes back with.

I got the following:

'Amanda needs operator disk ownership' ... well who doesn't?
'Amanda - needs gnutar' ... ah yes, gnutar, hate it when I don't have any gnutar
'AMANDA needs to be rebuilt' ... apparently so much so that my name is in CAPS!
'Amanda needs a small config change' ... I'm not a loony, I'm not
'Amanda needs a wise friend to tell her that this too shall pass' ... and thus ends my fascination with Google telling me what I need :)

Lolly quiz

Now, I don't tend to eat candy, or lollies as we call them here, but I saw this quiz over at Boudicca's Voice, and curiosity got the better of me.

Ahem, gotta love the tag line! I don't know about the always part ... :)

Snickers

Nutty and gooey - you always satisfy.

What Kind of Candy Are You?

Cool Firefly site

Here's a site that has the transcripts from all the episodes of Firefly, including the translations for the Chinese that they speak. Shiny!

Pretty cool, love the show. Will be hoping that a certain DVD will be making it's way into our Christmas stocking ... Shame about the movie, Serenity. I won't post any spoilers, but damn, I was disappointed in parts of it. They didn't even play the theme song, what is with that?

[hat tip to Harvey for the link]

Work update

Those of you who read regularly may remember that I not long started the job I am currently in. I've been there now for about 4 months, although I have been with the company longer in other positions, about 4 years.

Today we had a team meeting. I'm always a bit antsy about team meetings, as quite often in the past for me it meant that my team no longer had a job due to outsourcing.

Well, today's team meeting, the manager announced that our entire team was being relocated to Frenchs Forest. This has been met with universal dismay. This new location is a long way from our current one. At the moment it takes me about 15 minutes to get to work. The new location would take me over an hour. For those of you who travel a lot this probably doesn't seem like a big deal. But for those of us in our team, quite a few live in the area, and this will extend our travelling time a lot. One of the pluses of where we currently are is that it is close to home. And for others in the team, they are even worse off. Some already travel an hour to work, and this will probably double that. Not good. There is not a single person on the team for who this is a better location. Not one. People are worrying about the money we'll lose to tolls, and petrol. Petrol is very expensive here at the moment.

The manager understands this is a big impact on us, and is willing to let us work from home some of the time. Also, there may be a chance of working the other days at Parramatta (much closer suburb, probably 20 minutes drive). He's telling us not to panic, but the team won't be the same anymore, especially with people working from home.

It doesn't happen for another two months, so we will see what gets sorted out, but I will also be keeping an eye out for a new job, one in a different company.

Boot Camp update

Today was the start of the second of four weeks for Boot Camp. All in all, it is quite good. They really do push you to work out harder than you'd normally do. I'm about middle of the pack fitness wise, which is fine by me. I've been going ok, except for a *slight* mishap last Wednesday.

Wednesday was the second time I'd been to Boot Camp. We'd done our warmups, some running, pushups (they love getting us to do pushups, unfortunately I suck at them!), and then they divided us up into two teams. The aim was for the teams to line up, then the first person would sprint up to a cone, touch the ground and then sprint back, then the next person would do the same.

First sprint I did, hunky dory, even beat the person on the other team. Second sprint (which also became my last), not so good. I was sprinting back for the line, when I started to lose my balance. For a while I did that really uncoordinated attempt to keep running, trying to get balance back, then degenerated into pin wheeling my arms (such a good look), followed shortly thereafter by a splat as I hit the deck. Apparently it was quite a spectacular stack to watch. Unfortunately the splat was my knee connecting with a rock (I believe it was the only rock on the field, and I managed to find it!). OUCH! Not wanting to look like a complete wuss I launched to my feet again and made it back to the line.

Instructors made their way over to me pretty quickly, and I rolled up my tracky dacks to examine the damage, thinking at most there'd be a little graze. To my horror there was a lump sticking about an inch out from my knee. The instructors got me to sit out for ten minutes or so, with a chilled water bottle against my knee. The swelling subsided somewhat, and I continued on for the rest of the class. However, the instructors said I'd better get it checked out, just in case I'd done some serious damage. So off to the physio I went. Luckily I hadn't done any tendon or ligament damage, but the swelling had managed to push my kneecap up a bit. I was forbidden to go to Boot camp for the rest of the week, and had to keep my leg elevated as much as possible, and ice my knee a lot. I had to do that for three days. Interesting at work having to sit side on to the desk, with my pants leg shoved up so I could put ice on. Very professional looking.

Anyways, I now have a nice bruise, but I'm back into Boot Camp, all aok.

Let's hope I manage to get through the rest injury free. To add insult to injury (he he), you pay up front for the whole four weeks of the course, no refund if you miss any.

As long as I get fit and lose weight doing this, it will be worthwhile. That's what I tell myself. And I must admit, it is kinda fun, and nicer exercising outside rather than in the gym.