NaBloPoMo 2017: Field Notes From a Life in Medicine

40 hours out from my non-traumatic, sports-induced knee collapse, I’m off crutches, woo-hoooooo!  The knee is still swollen and stiff, and people still look twice when they see me limping.  I’m thinking of ordering from Peapod–the thought of walking around the grocery store, which I normally love doing, makes me wince a little.

I’m much more afraid, though, of the back slide that may ensue in these next days and weeks.  I’ve worked so hard the last few years, establishing and entraining an excellent exercise habit, and I was just hitting a period of new growth and ability, so exciting!  I was getting lighter and nimbler on my feet, and now I lurch clumsily, Trandelenburg-like (not really, but kinda).  All year I have felt sluggish and tense if more than two days went by without a work out.  I barely moved yesterday and I loved it, which scares me.

The last few months also saw a shift in my eating, recapturing a sense of control.  I was eating less without hunger or feeling deprived, and though my weight had remained roughly the same, my figure was noticeably streamlining.  I liked looking in the mirror again.  Last night I found myself grazing steadily after dark.  …Stress eating sucks.  I only recognized a few years ago that I do it, and I have since had much more empathy for my patients with similar patterns of food, tobacco, alcohol, and other ‘substance’ use.  I know I should not be shoveling tortilla chips, ice cream, cookies, and candy in my mouth at 10pm.  I know I don’t need the calories, I’m not really hungry, and I will feel guilty on the other side.  And I do it anyway.  It comes in cycles, and I have yet to find a healthier behavioral alternative in those moments (drink a full glass of water, get on the elliptical, drop and 20 push-ups!  Ooo, that last one might work…).

The point is, I really worry how this setback with my knee will derail and reverse all that I have accomplished until now.  (hyperventilation) GAAAAAHH!!

But wait, the injury was less than two days ago…  And I continue to feel better, regaining range of motion and limping slightly less with the help of ibuprofen and RICEing.  What did I write the other night about resting and recovering?  And what I have been preaching to patients about mindfulness, radical acceptance, and doing what you can at the time?  About small change steps sustained over time, and about how worry is counterproductive, because to paraphrase Michael J. Fox, if what you’re worried about actually happens, now you’ve lived it twice!?

Okay, I’ got this.  Plenty of movement I can still do with a bum knee (including maybe push-ups when I feel a late-night ice cream hankering).  I’m still the same motivated workout beast I was 60 hours ago, the same person who just got through a 30 day food challenge with only minor transgressions.  And JEEZ, it’s only been 40 hours.

Well thanks for helping me work through that, my friends.  I’m good now.