Holly was up early as part of a new plan to get in more exercise and asked me to join her for a hike in the park. My knee is typically sore in the morning, but I figured it would loosen up and if it got sore...well...I was going to see the surgeon later in the day and I figured that would be okay.
We walked a little over an hour and I could feel a slight twinge with every step. It’s been over two weeks now and it’s never been sore so long. I’m getting really anxious to get this thing behind me and hoping my meeting today will mean surgery tomorrow...though I doubt it goes that fast.
The remainder of the day told me just how important surgery was. That simple hike in the park stiffened my knee to the point that I had to move it some each time I went to stand up if I wanted to keep from falling once I did. I made it to the surgeon’s office on time, but found myself waiting over an hour for the examination. Fortunately, I’d brought Lance’s second book ‘Every Second Counts’ and finished it while waiting. It’s hard to read about the intensity he brought to his training and racing and not understand why he became the world’s greatest cyclist. His preparation, both on and off the bike, was stuff of legend. He left absolutely nothing to chance, studying his opposition, the course, his equipment, his training and nutrition and every aspect of what he did to assure maximum performance. The man was the best the sport has ever seen...and it had nothing to do with drugs and everything to do with a consummate passion to be the best.
The doctor looked over my MRI and said he could see the tear, but since it was a year old and based on his manipulation of my knee and the pain it caused (I thought of kicking his ass), it had gotten much worse on my last mountain climb. He wondered about my activity level, so I told him of my upcoming triathlon.
“Okay...you’re going to be a problem, I think. You’ve got to give this some time to heal. No biking for a week and then start back slowly,” he said.
What I heard was, “you can ride the bike as much as you want starting five minutes after surgery.”
Well...we’d discuss it more after the surgery...and when I was recovering from a good dose of anesthesia. His assistant came in to discuss the appointment for the surgery and to check what ailments, surgeries and medications I was taking. I suppose it sounded like bragging, but I’ve just been lucky and answered ‘no’ to everything.
“You’ve never had any surgery or taken any medications?” she asked again.
“Come to think of it...I had my wisdom teeth out about 30 years ago. Does that count?”
She checked it off with some delight. I suppose with all ‘no’s’ checked, they might have thought she was getting lazy and missing something.
“How’s a week from Friday?” she asked.
“About a week and three days longer than I want to wait. I’m here...he’s here...couldn’t he just grab his cutting stuff and have at it right now?”
She went and checked with him and returned to say he could get me in this Friday.
“We don’t do the surgery here...so he doesn’t have his cutting tools with him,” she said.
Damned shame about that, I thought. But Friday wasn’t too bad. Hell of a lot better than the original plan...seeing a doctor at the end of the month just to schedule the operation. I definitely got that going for me.
Hike/climb duration:
60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate:
80 bpm.Calories burned during workout: 300.
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