okay blogger, you win


Blogger switched me over to the new version. Okay, whatever.

I haven't updated in a while, but there's not a whole lot going on. I'm trying to stay on top of my school work, which is surprisingly hard this semester. I had a bad cold last week and suddenly I found myself behind in everything. After working my butt off, I'm pretty much caught up. This is the first semester in a while that I've been a full-time student, so I'm still trying to adjust to that. I'm also pretty busy helping out with Menomonie's winter drumline.

Physically, there isn't much news to report since my last post. My knee is still swollen all the time, and my physical therapist and athletic trainer are still advising me to avoid any unnecessary activity (including stairs and excessive walking). I am going stir-crazy. Before the accident I was fairly active - I went to the gym or went for bike rides several times a week. If I had my choice, that's the level of activity that I would have right now. I feel like I'm missing something because I can't go to the gym and work out or hop on my bike or whatever. Working out is a good stress reliever, and I miss that. A few months ago I was just starting to be able to do light workouts, and then I started having all this trouble with my IT band. I'm willing to take it easy for a little bit if it means my knee will calm down, but it doesn't seem to be getting any better. I'm frustrated because my therapists and I are doing pretty much everything we can at this point - stretches, heat, ice, massage, elevating it, and using ultrasound, anti-inflammatories and steroids... and it still hurts like crazy. I had my brace specialist guy take a look at my knee brace, thinking that the side was irritating my knee. He said it looked okay and took a pad out. I haven't noticed much difference yet, but hopefully that will help.

I've noticed my knee swells up whenever I'm on my feet for more than like 15 minutes at a time. This is a problem because, as a percussion major, I have to stand when I practice. And I can't really afford to cut back on my practice time. I'm going to try and eliminate all other factors, and if that doesn't seem to help my knee, I guess maybe I'll have to take a week off from practicing or something. Which is really frustrating. Actually, it seems like my knee swells up whenever it's not elevated. I've been trying to spend more time resting and keeping it elevated, so hopefully that will help.

Sorry my posts aren't too interesting lately. I don't have a whole lot going on right now other than school, teaching at Menomonie, and trying to rest & get my knee sorted out. My social life is sort of non-existant right now. I'm still trying to find a good balance between work and play - made even more difficult by the need to temporarily cut "unnecessary activity" out of my life. So... I think that's all I've got for now.