Faulty body parts? I've got plenty!

Soooo, clearly I'm never going to finish posting about Mauritius, seeing as that trip was in January and it is now May.

(Related: I was writing the date on a contract the other day, and put 5/6/13 or whatever it was, then laughed at myself all "HA! What an idiot! Why on earth did I put MAY on there!?" and erased it. And then realized that no, it somehow IS MAY. How? When? HOW??) 

Anyway!  As we all know, when I have nothing interesting to blog about, chances are I will injure myself in some exciting way and then have a good story for you. I am pleased (?) to report that, as usual, this is the case.

As you know, I play ultimate frisbee. As you also know, I hurt myself a lot playing ultimate frisbee. Such is life (...when you're me, and your body isn't put together very well). But for the past few seasons, I've been having a much more annoying sort of injury: a bum knee.  

It's the kind of injury that I'm not sure how or when it happened, and which *could* just be my body announcing, loudly and painfully, that I am in my 30s and maybe should stop running around like a nutcase.

..but most of my teammates are in their 30s and 40s, and THEY run around like nutcases, so this did appear more specific to me and my singularly flawed body. But it hasn't been TOO bad - I just can't play tournaments anymore, because my knee started giving out after two back-to-back games. Then last season, after just 1 game. And then recently my knee starting twingeing when I'd go up stairs.

So obviously I ignored it and just, um, didn't play back-to-back games. As you do. 

And then last weekend I tried to go for a run and my knee up and died.  I had to stop after half a mile and slowly limp home, then apply lots of ice for the rest of the day so I could walk again on Monday.  And then I also finally called the orthopedist. 

Scene: Knee doctor's office. I have just given a rundown of my knee's history.

Dr: I see. And does your knee swell up when it starts hurting?  

Me: No, not really. 

Dr: Are you sure? It's pretty swollen right now. 

Me: Oh. Wait, really? 

Dr: You can't even bend it all the way back. 

Me: Oh. Huh.  You're right.  OK, um, I guess I'm not a good judge of whether it swells up after running, in that case.

There's no diagnosis yet, but I was super-relieved to hear he's confident it's not a problem with my ACL or other ligaments.  It could be something meniscus-related, apparently (my knee did this awful gross clicking when he moved it side to side) but we'll find out more after an MRI.  

Dr: Have you had an MRI before? 

Me: Hmm... let me see... that's the loud one in the big tube, right? 

Dr: Uh, yes. 

Me: Then yes! For my tailbone. 

Dr: Your... tailbone? 

Dr: [the most transparent "I'm not even going to ask" expression I've ever encountered]

I like to think that at least my doctors have good stories about their day after seeing me.

When I got home, I emailed a summary of my visit and the new intriguing potential meniscus issue to Chris.  This is the email I received back:

You're bad at having working body parts.

Touché, sir.