Geek Habitat

Cool, I’ve actually forgotten how many weeks I am post-op from the knee surgery. I’ll have to figure it out again soon, and post it here, though. I believe I hit 16 weeks in the last week or so. I was scheduled to see my OS on May 23, but he rescheduled me to June 22nd (earliest date available). So my 3 month post-op checkup has become my 4 month checkup…

My knee was doing terrific up until last Wednesday when I knocked it hard enough to break the skin. I was fiddling around on my hands and knees under a recliner and when I stood up, my shin nailed the metal supports of the recliner’s footrest. I can’t describe the pain except to equate it to equal to the pain I felt when I fell in January, severing my ACL and tearing my menisci. In fact, the pain was probably worse since it raced up my leg and back down at least 5 times before my brain got over the “white hot pain” stage and I could actually assure those present that I hadn’t just torn my graft. As a true klutz, I simply managed to break the skin right over my shin incision, and no doubt bruise my shin bone and tweak my calf muscle. Since my lateral calf had just started to regain more normal sensation, this accident set me back a bit by causing pain and a return of the numbness to that area.

Anyway, I’ve been walking braced most of the time since last Wednesday due to the accident. Today was my first day walking for exercise without wearing the hinged brace. I walked 3.16 miles in 51 minutes — slower than I’d been doing, but acceptable considering the still-recent insult to the knee. Justin and I walked 1.16 miles together on Sunday — my first exercise walk since Wednesday’s injury; the shin and calf muscle were quite painful, as was my hamstring, so we only did two laps instead of our usual three.

I still haven’t found a gym, though to be honest I haven’t been looking very hard. Something about shelling out cash every month is grating on my nerves, particularly since I have Therabands, a Theraband exercise ball, 8lb. and 3lb. dumbbells, and our beloved Concept II indoor rowing machine. I do need to step up my search for a good, sturdy bicycle, however. As the Texas summer bears down on us, I’m going to want to be travelling faster than my walking pace to have any hope of staying cool during my outdoor exercise!

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I still need to post my Star Wars spoiler post, particularly now that I’ve seen Sith three times. Justin, his cousin Joey and my brother Thomas all saw Star Wars last Friday. Unfortunately, had Lucas been present he would have had a coronary — there were halos around every bright area on the screen, and the sound was so low key dialog was missed by anyone who hadn’t already seen the movie. Joey and Justin complained to the theatre management, resulting in all four of us receiving a free pass to a future movie.

I walked 2.6 miles in 35 minutes this morning. During the walk, I had my first wincing pain in many, many weeks. I’d gone through a small setback like this early last week, but I didn’t equate the return of pain and swelling with any specific activity. Today, at least, I know the exact cause and can avoid it in the future. More on that in a moment.

I am having the classic pains I endured prior to surgery, namely a constant ache from the right (medial) side of my knee, and the lower left (lateral) side of it, towards the underside of the knee. Prior to surgery, I didn’t understand that these pains were due to my torn menisci which act as living shock absorbers in our knees and other joints. Now I recognize both localized areas of pain for what they are — my menisci have been abused and they’re letting me know it.

I should note, especially for any family reading this, that my knee is fine — it’s still strong and stable, and I’m not worried in the least about the graft or my overall healing. This return of pain has an understandable and easily preventable cause, as opposed to my initial injuries that sent me to surgery in the first place. A short recap of those injuries that my knee surgery addressed: I had a completely torn (severed) ACL, and the MRI also showed a large tear in my medial meniscus which the OS couldn’t repair in surgery. Not all meniscus tears are reparable, in which case the OS usually removes the torn portion to prevent enlargement of the tear. Thus, I have 40% less shock absorption on the medial aspect (right side) of my left knee. In surgery, my OS also found a small tear to my lateral meniscus that hadn’t shown up on the MRI. Thankfully, that meniscus tear was reparable and my shock absorption on the lateral side of the knee is more or less intact. Due to the 40% removal of my medial meniscus, osteoarthritis is guaranteed to develop eventually, but I’ll be older and slower by then and medical science may even have a way to reconstruct cartilage with biological replacements. So far, no known manmade substances have low enough friction to mimic the body’s own cartilage, which has a friction equivalent that’s generally compared to “ice on ice”.

Anyway, why the resurgence of pain and swelling today and earlier last week? I’d been varying my walking routine a bit, and have done several walks (including today) at a brisk pace on neighborhood sidewalks. The advantage of a neighborhood, particularly a large subdivision, is there’s no shortage of routes and mileage one can work in. The disadvantage is there are countless dips in the sidewalk to allow for each home’s driveway and/or alleyway. So when I’m walking briskly on the sidewalk, only one-third of the time am I actually walking at a proper angle (perpendicular to horizontal vs. at an incline or decline angle to it). This puts abnormally uneven stress and force on the menisci in both knees, and at least this soon post-op, is something my left knee clearly doesn’t like.

I try to walk in the street, but drivers being how they are, it’s not always the safest place to be when there are many cars parked along the sidewalks. So, I’ll be going back to my old routes: actual paved walking trails, which are graded properly for walkers. Neighborhood sidewalks are now off-limits and totally wrong for my knee, at least during exercise walks. Until today, I hadn’t connected any return of pain or swelling to the sidewalk exercise walks. At least I got the message today when my knee let me know it in no uncertain terms!

Anyway, it’s back to rest, ice and elevation for the left knee today. I also had a pretty good hamstring twinge/cramp right when I started walking, but I was a geek and didn’t stretch properly before starting out. I guess my knee’s not done teaching me stuff, it seems.

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In related news, here’s some promising ACL and meniscus research that may someday prevent people from having to get a hamstring autograft like I did — or any graft at all. The goal? Total repair by facilitating and stimulating the body’s natural healing response… No titanium screws, no harvests or transplants, just some high tech “goo” to help the body make its own repairs.

A SPOILER-FREE Star Wars entry follows. If you comment, don’t give away any plot details.

There will be another entry, password-protected so latecomers don’t spoil their experience, linked here shortly. The spoilers entry’s password will be: episode3

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My geek cred is now suitably restored. I’ve seen Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith twice now; Justin’s seen it 3 times. There are definitely things to pick up on subsequent viewings. In a “word”, it’s — Wonderful, wonderful, and again, most wonderful.

Until I re-watch the entire Star Wars saga, beginning with Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, I think this is my favorite segment of the saga. I know that’s probably blasphemy to some, like I’m somehow sullying Stars Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back, but c’est la vie. That said, I do reserve the right to change my mind after watching Empire again. Further, this Episode wouldn’t have the power and pull over me that it does if it weren’t for the others. Unlike some fans, I didn’t loathe or even dislike the first two prequels, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Like life, the earlier prequels were stages that had to occur so the next stage, Episode III, could carry us to the “reality” we already knew.

Some of the spoiler-free reasons I enjoyed this Episode so thoroughly?

• Masterful film score, as always, followed by masterful sound design/effects
• Delightfully delicious visuals, even in the harshest of environs and wildest of scenes.
• Overall, the best acting exhibited in any of the prequels. Now I finally “get” Hayden Christensen as a tormented soul. He (Anakin) was a bit whiny in Episode II.
• Good use of humor. Purists seem to think Lucas panders to the masses by including comedy, but I’ve always enjoyed it. Most tragedies have elements of comedy, anyway. Particularly in this Episode, it helps to have brief moments of levity amidst the movie’s emotional, visual and auditory turmoil.
• Closure, finally! I’m 31 years old. Star Wars was born just 4 years after I was. It’s time we fully understood Darth Vadar’s origins and nature.

I feel a disturbance in the Force …

My geek cred is plummeting by the hour, since I have no plans for today to see the final Star Wars movie, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. I did send my envoy, however — Justin will be in a theatre at 2 PM with his crew from work as that familiar music thunders over the auditorium speakers, bringing tears to all but the most battle-hardened of geeks. He’ll be viewing the movie at the same theatre that hosted an overnight line party for the first (midnight) showing of Sith. Star Wars is modern mythology, and the opening of a prequel turns ordinary theatres into geek-sanctified ground — a temple if you will. Of course, this time, it’s a temple of the Sith. A Dark Lord rises to bring ‘balance’ to the Force.

In 1999, while I still worked in corporate America, I attended the opening day “work-approved” viewing of the first prequel, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. I suspect they approved it knowing full well that to not would mean a wave of mysterious illness and family emergencies would have overtaken our crew of designers, developers, usability engineers and project managers. We took over much of an already-to-capacity auditorium, and it was a little manic as the lights dimmed.

I like things calmer and more personal, and thus I haven’t revived my corporate persona to hang out in a dark theatre with the old work crew since my departure. Justin has continued the tradition in my stead, and that’s enough for me. I will be seeing the movie tomorrow with Justin and our good friend and partner in crime, AnnMarie.

I’ve learned a lot in the past 2 years, not the least of which is I can wait 24 hours.

That said, I apologize to my neighbors in advance for blaring my Star Wars soundtracks as I work on my computer today!

Yesterday, I mentioned our desire for Justin and I to resume a routine of walking together for exercise. Today, we resumed that tradition with a 2.4 mile walk together at Bullis County Park in northeast San Antonio. Despite all my walking these past 12 weeks, Justin has absolutely no trouble keeping pace with me. In fact, due to all the talking we were doing, I had a little trouble keeping up with him at times — I’m not used to talking during my solo exercise walks (though I’m sure that would be entertaining to my fellow exercise walkers on the trails! )

Despite Justin’s long, hectic days at work, we have both wanted to resume these walks — primarily for exercise, but also to enjoy unhindered time together, free of (for the most part) telephone calls and other distractions. I have to admit the latter aspect is especially nice, since I have the luxury of doing exercise walks during weekdays due to the nature of my work in our small business. For instance, earlier today, I walked 2.6 miles myself at Baumberger Nature Preserve and the Leon Creek Greenbelt. With Justin’s help, that means I achieved my personal goal of 5 miles walked today.

Walking is nice. Walking with a loved one is nicer!

It’s late and I’m starting to doze off, otherwise I might muse a bit on the nature of conversation and the other couples and families one passes on walking trails. That will have to be another entry, at another time.

I wish I could say this post is my announcement that I’ve finally gotten off my duff and launched a WordPress blog for my mom, but I haven’t gotten there quite yet. I suspect her blog will be far more interesting and well-read than mine, so perhaps I’ve been dragging my heels to stave off the inevitable? Naw, I’ve just been a combination of lazy, distracted and busy. Mom, I love you and still owe you a blog and photo gallery. SOON, I promise!

No, this post is to announce the entry of another blogger from our extended family — Tim Morgan — and his newly launched website, Time With Tim. Tim is a long-time friend of Justin’s brother, Jason. I don’t know Tim well, but he came into my life while Justin and I were in the planning stages of our wedding nearly seven years ago. Tim officiated our wedding ceremony on December 12, 1998, at the quaint Thrift Memorial Chapel on the grounds of Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio. At the time, I was so grateful Tim had been willing to travel all the way from North Texas just for our wedding. In 1999, he proved that had been no fluke by flying to Las Vegas, Nevada, to officiate Justin’s brother, Jason’s, wedding to Karen. The wedding was no ordinary Vegas wedding — we all hiked to the top of Mount Charleston in Red Rock Canyon State Park.

My favorite wedding ceremony will always be my own, of course, but there was something magical about hiking to the top of Mount Charleston and seeing another long-term couple commit themselves to marriage and one another. Of course, Jason and Karen now have a beautiful little daughter, Jillian Avery Moore. Justin and I have three cats. It’s all worked out well!

Anyway, check out Tim’s blog. As I said, I have to admit I really don’t know Tim that well, and I was blind-sided a year or so ago when I heard about the trials and tribulations that had occurred in his life since we last saw him. Reading his initial entries, however, I now have a better appreciation for the man whom we invited to help us begin our lives together as husband and wife. I am grateful that he has friends, such as Jason, whom have remained in his life for so many years. I can only hope that in 10 or 20 years, I too have such good friends.

Welcome to the world of ‘blogging, Tim. It’s good to “see” you again!