Swim Class Update 2

So tonight was the second to last session of swim class. It would've been the last class, except for the unfortunate poop-in-the-pool incident a few weeks back.I've gotten a lot better in terms of speed, form, and endurance, although I still am not quite where I'd like to be on anything other than freestyle. Butterfly and doing flip turns were a lot easier than expected, and breaststroke was a lot harder. Meghan, the instructor, thinks this is mainly due to my knee surgery. She should know - she switched to swimming after she blew out her knee at soccer, and doesn't like breaststroke either.
I don't feel weak anymore, which makes me happy. Soccer is a good whole body workout, and I lost a lot of muscle all throughout my body after I injured my knee, and for a long time it was very slow to return. When the class started, I gained two lbs at first, and then lost it. My waist is slightly trimmer. My shoulders, ribs and arms are slightly more muscular, although it's not noticeable unless I wear my black blazer, which no longer fits even though it was fine two weeks before class started. Sigh. Some people hate shopping for swim suits or jeans, but I hate shopping for blazers.
What I like the best, however, is the fact that I can do an exhausting workout and not feel the least bit sore afterwards. That is a very good thing. I get cranky if I don't get enough exercise but I also get cranky if I'm too sore, so swimming has been a good way to wear myself out.
A few random notes, in case you're thinking about hitting the pool. If you can, buy a swimsuit made of a certain kind of durable polyester rather than lycra/nylon. (I won't bore you with the chemistry reason for this) They're usually marketed as 'endurance' suits or some similar name. I've had one for five years. It's outlasted at least five or six lycra suits.
If you wear a swim cap, wet your hair down with unchlorinated water before getting in the pool. That way your hair is saturated with plain water and it takes a lot longer for the chlorine to diffuse in. I've noticed a big difference since I started doing it.

Chick-tac-toe/SAE conference, Day 1

I'm at the SAE conference in Detroit. That's 'Society of Automotive Engineers'. Yep. It's very different from the chemistry conferences I've attended. Everyone is wearing suits, except for me and a few other random people wearing blazers. There are lots of nifty looking cars in the Exposition Hall, hybrids, CNG and fuel cell cars, etc. There are even a couple of hybrid Hummers. They have very big batteries. The cutaway cars are particularly cool.
Arnold Schwartzenegger was supposed to speak at the opening ceremonies. I waited around for a while then wandered out for coffee. When I came back he still hadn't arrived. I left to go to the talks, so I missed the speech when he finally did show up. No great loss.
My knee had been bugging me. The physical therapy last week did a number on it and now all this sitting in non-adjustable chairs hasn't been good for it. Hopefully they'll have tables at the training class tomorrow.
My boss and I went to dinner with one of our collaborators from Dow. We wandered through the Greektown Casino after dinner. It was mostly nondescript, but there was a long line of people waiting for something. I assumed they were waiting for the buffet, but in fact they were waiting for their chance to play tic-tac-toe against a white hen named Ginger. Chick-tac-toe, get it?!?! Ginger was scratching away at the wall. Her competitors would enter their picks on a computer touch screen next to her cage, and she'd peck out her response.
We watched a few games. Ginger won all of them. They didn't mention whether Ginger would be sent to be on the buffet if she lost too many games.
The bath is calling me again. Hopefully tonight I'll be able to fall asleep at a reasonable hour. More from the SAE conference tomorrow.

Week 4

I'm killing time until I have to head out to go meet Judy for some dinner and shopping. Anyway, it's been four weeks since my surgery. The knee is still slowly getting better, but either I'm behind schedule or had selective hearing on how fast it would heal. I have to keep reminding myself that the doctor said it wouldn't completely heal until 3 months. I hope I didn't slow down my recovery by going back to work sooner than recommended.
Stairs continue to be my nemesis. It's getting better but I can still feel it going upstairs and downstairs. On a better note, I no longer have the pain in the back of the knee that I used to feel from the injury. I can also kick when I swim or jog a few steps. That wasn't possible last week. I still haven't worked out two days in a row, though. I'm starting to feel like a big fat slug.
I went walking on uneven terrain last weekend. The milder ups and downs were nowhere near as bad as stairs, fortunately. I felt pretty good.
I have to be more careful with shoes these days. Shoes that felt OK before now tweak the knee in weird ways. I've stuck with the ones that work, but don't have anything suitable for the conference next week. Hopefully I will be able to find a good pair tonight.
Postscript: I went to the physical therapist today. She told me to stay away from stairs for now and said that if I strain it that will slow down the healing. I wish my doctor had told me that a few weeks ago. So I'm back to the one-legged stair climbing for now.

Two weeks and counting

It's been almost three weeks since my knee surgery. I'm walking around more or less normally. For the most part, I don't have to think about how I step, but going up and down stairs is still a challenge and running is still painful. (Not that I've gone running, but the phone rang when I was outside so I ran to get it.) As I do more stuff, sometimes the knee makes its' presence known, which makes it feel like I'm backsliding. I just have to remind myself that I'm doing a lot more now. I did my first 'mostly in lab' day on Thursday. By the end of the day it felt really good to get off my feet.
I'm off of the vicodin. I was taking one pill at night up until two weeks after the surgery. The first few nights were hard. I'd wake up with a vague feeling of discomfort. The knee didn't exactly hurt, but the leg was achy and I couldn't quite get comfortable. I'm over that, I think. We'll see what happens once I start exercising.
I had my post-op appointment last Monday. Everything is healing up well, but the doctor saw a lot of arthritis in the knee. He advised me not to play soccer. I'm going to miss it a lot, but it's not worth it. I know my other knee is actually the worse one, arthritis-wise. I can still run, if I want. Most of the damage was on the outside of the knee, and running mainly impacts the inside. I'm glad I didn't get told to stop walking/hiking. I can start exercising in a day or two. I'm very glad about that. My legs look like jello now. I'm visiting Sheila in 3 weeks. We had initially planed on backpacking but with only two weeks to get in shape, that was probably unrealistic. The doctor said the knee will take about three months to heal completely, and during that time there will be times when it will twinge or hurt, and not to get too worried about it if it's just an occasional thing.
We had our monthly girls' night out happy hour on Thursday. This one featured $2 drinks and an amusing encounter with some of T's buddies at the bar. Debbie was there. She had lots of tales of soccer drama. That's drama of the 'adults acting completely immature' sort. Granted, Debbie seems to attract more than her share of it, for reasons that I can't quite figure out. Nonetheless, it did help to make me feel a little bit better about not being able to play soccer. I don't miss that aspect of it. It's probably worth a blog of its' own sometime, but if you've played rec league sports or witnessed obnoxious parents at kids' sports, you may know what I mea

Day 11: Angel Food Cake

My knee continues to improve. Yesterday I was able to sit normally and stand for longer periods of time. It still hurts to go up or down stairs, so I have to take those one step at a time, literally.
To celebrate the fact that I did not have to collapse on the couch as soon as I got home, I tested the whisk attachment on my stand mixer and made an angel food cake. I've made them in the past, and it's not one of my baking strengths. I'm not very dainty and never was very good at gently folding flour into egg whites.

Back when I was in junior high, I took a cooking class. We spent at least half the semester learning to bake. I had helped my mom but this was my first introduction to recipes and kitchen chemistry. (Mom doesn't really use recipes.) Towards the end of the baking unit, our homework assignment was to bake something and report on how it came out. I chose to make an angel food cake. It came out pretty dry and tough due to my inexperience with folding. Fortunately, it was tasty so it didn't last very long. I got an A nonetheless for trying something complicated. I've gotten marginally better at folding but I don't think I've made an angel food cake from scratch since high school.

So anyway, it seemed appropriate to revisit my old homework assignment to test the mixer. This time around, I whipped up the egg whites and cream of tartar. For the baking geeks out there, the proteins in the egg white uncoil when the egg whites are beaten and trap air bubbles. The cream of tartar prevents them from cross-linking through sulfur atoms in the amino acids in the protein. This would lead to graininess. Anyway, it only took about two minutes for soft peaks to form and then it was ready to add the sugar. This was a lot faster than if I used a handheld mixer. I then sifted the flour over the eggs and gently mixed it in. It was definitely faster and easier than folding it in by hand. The batter seemed like it didn't lose as much volume as it normally does.

When I pulled it out of the oven, it looked beautiful and smelled great, with just a faint whiff of egginess. After it cooled, I removed it from the pan. It seemed a bit damper than usual, so I probably should have baked it longer or been careful to measure the egg whites. I tasted it this morning. It was tender and moist but not soggy. I haven't eaten a from-scratch angel food cake in 20 years, and had forgotten how much nicer they taste without all the additives. It's tenderer, less sweet, and has a much more delicate flavor. I'm going to take some of the cake over to my mom, along with some strawberries.

The mixer works great for bread and cakes. I am very pleased with my purchase and with the fact that it allowed me to finally conquer the angel food cake. For biscotti, it was convenient but didn't provide an advantage in the final product.

Day 8: Back at work, sort of

I worked a full day today. Maybe not a super productive day, but a full day nonetheless. My knee started complaining and my brain started wandering around 3 PM. My brain is still moving slowly. It's only noticeable at work. I've been taking one vicodin pill before bed each night, so I don't think that's why. I think there's just enough low level pain and constant awareness of my knee. Has anyone else had this experience after surgery?
My boss' boss saw me in the hall today. He asked if I managed to work on that paper while I was out. I said no, I was too drugged and sore. Afterwards, I realized he didn't even ask how I felt or how it went. I was sort of annoyed. Granted, he's just a super big chemistry geek and that's how his mind works. (Being a super big chemistry geek myself, I had told him I'd work on it while I was gone, but I underestimated the combined power of pain and vicodin.) If I had stayed home this week, I could've worked on it, but I felt like I needed to be back to work. In contrast, my boss has been very helpful.

Day 4: Dreams of Chemistry

It's been 4 days since my surgery. I'm feeling a lot better and have phased back to two vicodin pills per day, compared to six the day after the surgery or eight (maximum recommended daily dose). By the end of the weekend I am hoping to only take one at night and none during the day.
My brain is still a bit foggy. I'm mentally up to analyzing data from my experiments but am not up to writing that paper on stuff I worked on five years ago or doing literature searches for new stuff. I had some very good results in lab recently so that may be fueling my bias. Last night I dreamt I was in lab, making compounds. I slept deeply and woke up refreshed.
If I can't do chemistry, then I want to bake. Unfortunately, I shouldn't be on my feet for very long. I'm making no knead bread as a compromise, and to satisfy my experimentation craving, I'm testing using a sourdough starter. If it comes out really well I'll post the recipe.
Veronica stopped by yesterday and brought me her circulating ice wrap. It's a very good thing. There's a little ice chest fitted with a pump and some tubing. You fill it up with ice and water, then plug the tubing into the knee wrap. The cold water circulates through the wrap. The temperature is controlled by how fast the water circulates. Since my leg is still wrapped in bandages, it works a lot better than an ice pack.
I took a bath last night. It was probably the best bath of my entire life. I cheated and took off my leg wrap, lowered myself into the tub and then filled it up while keeping my leg propped up on the top of the tub. At the end I drained the tub and then raised myself out of the tub using my arms and my good leg. (yes, I did test this manoever prior to actually taking a bath)
I will be happy when this is all over, but I can't really complain too much. Apart from the first night, my recovery has been going pretty well.

BUI

BUI: Blogging under the Influence, or, random stories about my knee surgery

My surgery was two days ago. I'm on lots of Vicodin at the moment. By popular request, I'm blogging under the influence (thanks, Sheila!). At the moment, I'm not supposed to drive, do my taxes, or make important decisions, but I can still blog. So here it is, in no particular order.

Me and my drugs: The surgery itself went fine. I wasn't nauseated afterwards and didn't feel a lot of pain. It reminded me of my experience when i got my wisdom teeth out, so I didn't take enough painkillers after the surgery. (I was supposed to take Vicodin every 3-4 hours) At first, it was no big deal. I took a nap and then hung out with my mom, who was pretty amused by my loopy drugged state. Around 6, T suggested that maybe I ought to take the Vicodin since the other painkillers would be wearing off. I did, but didn't take my next dose until I went to bed 5 hours later. Bad idea. I woke up three hours later with a very sore knee and I had to pee. I nearly fainted on my way back from the bathroom. I got T to go get me some vicodin. Since then, I've had to be pretty careful to take it according to schedule. Last night I took one before bed and was able to sleep the whole night so that was good. I'll see if I can phase back on the medication today.

Me and my helpers: My mom took me over to the hospital, brought me home and stayed with me after the surgery and yesterday afternoon. She's not so good at traditional mom-style babying, but she's really good at distracting me, bringing me flowers and chocolate, raiding my fridge, and fussing over the cats, so she's been a big help. She had the advantage of getting me when I was loopy and cheerful.
T came over to stay with me the night after the surgery. He had the misfortune of getting me when the painkillers wore off in the middle of the night and I was most decidedly not cheerful. He was very solicitous and helpful and managed to get me to eat even though I didn't want to. He got major boyfriend bonus points for that and for reminding me to take my vicodin the night before.
I've got a feline helper too. Rugrat has been on my lap pretty much constantly since I've gotten back. She's figured out not to sit on the knee, She's like my little teddy bear. Sometimes it's nice, and sometimes it's annoying.

"It's not Playboy time!": The anesthesia made me pretty loopy. The nurses seemed to enjoy having a cheerful drugged patient to deal with. When it was time for me to get dressed, the nurse, who was probably in her 50's, told me that she would take out my IV line and then I could get dressed. I got confused and thought she told me to get dressed and then she'd take out the IV. She hadn't closed the curtain but there was no one around so I just started getting dressed. I whipped off my gown and was trying to put my bra on when she came back. "It's not Playboy time!", she said, and closed the curtains. It was pretty funny. She also made jokes about my pasties when she pulled off the little stickers that they used for the monitors.

Anyway, I'm feeling a lot better this morning. I took a sponge bath and washed my hair. I'm going to watch some of the NCAA basketball tournament and try to motivate to do some reading for work. I'm probably still too drugged to work on that paper I'm supposed to write.

knee countdown: 11 days

I've got 11 days until my surgery. Suddenly it has become something I have to think about more. I got a call about donating blood, and had to tell them that I couldn't. I had to move a meeting up by a few days so that I could be there. At the advice of Kathy, who's had more sports injuries than I can count, I'm stockpiling bags of ice. I'm in the medicine/supplement-free stage, in which many things that I take are now off-limits, including advil/aleve, birth control pills, ginger, licorice, and ginseng. If it might make my blood thinner, it's out. If it might make my blood clot, it's out. If it raises my blood pressure, it's out. Ditto for anything that might lower my blood pressure. I don't think this would be the time to be a smart-ass chemist and ask if certain things cancel each other out. Basically, my medicine chest and tea cupboard are now off-limits. Casual Facebook friends have wondered if I'm pregnant, based on my oblique references to my new dietary restrictions. Unfortunately, my abs and back are out of shape so I even look more pregnant than usual. Sigh. Fortunately, chocolate and alcohol are still permitted. I'm going to need them.
It's easy to be cranky, and I've certainly been on edge more nowadays. But in reality it's just a small thing. A coworker had to go in for emergency back surgery last week. He's doing well, but has a long recovery ahead of him. It was a good reminder for me to keep things in perspective.

old biddy + soccer = torn meniscus

In three weeks I'll have knee surgery to repair my torn meniscus. I am a bit nervous, but am looking forward to being more mobile again.
I hurt it while playing soccer, of course. I wish I could say that I did some extreme athletic maneuver or got tackled really hard, but this was my Monday night pickup game, and that kind of stuff doesn't happen there. No, I was nowhere near the ball or any other players. I changed direction and felt the tiniest little sensation in the back of my knee. It felt like I had just tweaked it. A second later it felt fine again.
After soccer it got very stiff and swelled up. The next morning it felt worse and clicked every time I took a step. Nonetheless, I wasn't too worried. I'd had something sort of similar happen a few weeks before in my other knee, and it went away in a few days. This time, however, after a week it wasn't getting any better so I went to the doctor. She saw the swelling and thought it was bursitis, since i had been doing a lot of kneeling during the bathroom remodel.
She told me to stop kneeling on hard surfaces and to continue playing soccer. Unfortunately, that didn't help. It got worse after I played soccer again. Eventually I got an appointment in the sports medicine department and a MRI. The diagnosis, which came a few days after my 40th birthday, was that I had a meniscus tear in the right knee and patellofemoral syndrome and a little bit of arthritis in both knees. Welcome to old biddyhood!
So now I'm waiting for arthroscopic surgery. My appointment is on St Patrick's day. I will definitely not be doing any jigs, step dancing, or Irish waltzes that night. In the meantime I'm supposed to ride the exercise bike with no resistance, swim, and lift weights. I was told not to walk on the treadmill. Soccer, biking, hiking, using the stairmaster and running are out. So are any exercises involving lunges or sideways twisting. The swimming and weightlifting aren't a problem. The exercise bike is more problematic. It made my knee feel worse and I lost a lot of leg strength. I went back to walking on the treadmill. Nonetheless, I've lost a lot of muscle and core strength and between that and the knee itself, it threw everything slightly out of kilter. I've heard that this is normal. At this point I'm just trying not to gain any weight.
I'm not sure if I'm going to go back to playing soccer or not. I enjoy it a lot, but sometimes I think it's not worth it. I stopped playing competitively about a year ago, when I landed hard on my tailbone and hurt my back. I'm going to do my best to get in shape for running and hiking and strengthen my legs. If I feel like I'm stronger than I was before I was injured, I may go back to playing in the Monday night pickup games, but I'm not going to rush it. More than the soccer itself, I miss the camaraderie.
Anyway, it's a pain but in the grand scheme of things it's pretty minor. I try to keep it in perspective. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't.