10:23 a.m. - June 22, 2006
Ouch!
I�ve been really lucky.
Yes, I have a beautiful wife and a beautiful house and beautiful children and now a job I love.
So that�s lucky.
But I�m also 40! Yes, she just turned 40 but I�ve been there since November.
While I am not Mr. Athlete (though I love sports), I do try to make sure I have some physical activity going on each week. Though everyone around here who has met me knows I have a little junk in my trunk.
I play hoops (or try to) twice a week at lunchtime.
I play softball with the boys. Yeah, I know. It�s slow pitch softball. And I�m the pitcher. But I actually had to RUN the bases a lot last night in our 16-3 win. (We�re 3-4 on the season, but in each of our losses we didn�t have our full team there).
I am NOW going to try to take more walks with the family � especially when the weather is cooler. Right now, Indiana is going through a phase of �let�s just try to melt every solid into one undistinguished lump� phase with its weather, and that usually means that big time thunderboomers are coming.
It takes me about 45 minutes to an hour to mow the lawn, and I don�t have a rider, and the mower is not self propelled, so I do have to exert myself when I cut the grass.
I have a lot of my friends, at my age, or younger, that have some maladies. A few people keep turning ankles, and I know of one or two that may need to have some minor shoulder surgery. Of course, I probably also need shoulder surgery, since from the age of 25 my shoulder has gone �grindy grindy grindy� most of the time when I really try to zing the ball somewhere. And since my arm wasn�t the best to begin with, my �zing� is now rather much a �meh�. But the doctor I had back in Indianapolis told me to �stop playing softball�. OK, sure. Right.
And a few years back I had a sore knee, and he said I probably dislodged some cartilage, and again the solution was not surgery, or even a scope, but to �stop playing softball�.
Well, crap, what am I supposed to do? That was when I was in three softball leagues and that was my only recreation (it was pre-Wabash, so I didn�t have the lunchtime hoops).
Right before Katie was born, I had a strained back muscle. That pain was intense. I got some good muscle relaxers and super-duper-extra-mega strength Tylenol-like substance that I took for a few days.
But I�ve never had major issues with my body.
Now, though, I�m worried.
I played hoops yesterday like normal, and I ran and sweated. It wasn�t my best performance, even though I hit a couple of good shots, because I threw the ball away on game point twice during the day.
I went home and played with the kids. I carried Kristin around a bit when she wasn�t being a squirmy worm, and Katie and I boogied a little bit when Liz was making meatloaf. Yum! I�ll save you some next time.
I went up and down the stairs a few times getting ready for my softball game, putting the kids to bed, going on the internet for my allotted time (only 30 minutes yesterday, not counting a 3 minute look at the weather right before I left for the game).
Then I played the game. We won 16-3, though my pitching was a bit shaky. I had a few control problems early on, but then found a groove. We also had new umps, and I don�t think they�ve seen me pitch before and weren�t quite getting me the calls I was used to. Yeah, I�m a spoiled prima donna pitcher. Heh.
So I get home, and as I�m walking into the house, I feel a stabbing pain in my knee.
A couple of weeks ago, whilst watching the Stanley Cup, somehow I sat wrong and had some pain in my inner thigh area, but that went away quickly.
But now, I hade this sharp pain in my knee. OK, no worries, I thought. I�ll shower up and then get ready for bed. This should work itself out.
Well, I showered up, and got all clean, and it was still a struggle to get downstairs. Sigh.
Liz and I watched an episode of �The Office� and I went upstairs to bed. I was still a limping.
Last night, it was a bit hot and humid in our bedroom, even with our window air conditioner, and my knee was twinging a bit, but I thought it would be better when I woke up this morning.
Nope.
I limped up and down the stairs a couple of times, and I climbed the stairs up to my office here at work, and my knee still feels twingy and weak. And there�s a sharp pain right under my kneecap.
So I haven�t been downstairs to check the mail, yet. And I wonder if I really dinged it up this time.
The incredible suckitiude of this is that I need to mow the lawn today, and I play another game tomorrow. Plus there�s carrying Kristin around, dancing with Katie and all kinds of cool things you do with the kids.
I DO have a doctor�s appointment on Monday, and that�s going to be a full one. I will need to have my BP and Cholesterol checked and meds adjusted, perhaps, some OCD meds, perhaps, and now my knee. All this and I have no idea, since it�s my big 4-0 appointment, if I am going to have to have the prostate cancer exam. (Oh, please NO!)
The doc is definitely going to earn his co-pay.
So tomorrow it�s clean up day in the office and I�m getting a new computer as well. I had hoped to set a good example, put shorts on and really work at getting this office in ship shape, and then actually doing some filing. (What a concept � the last time I filed my paper files was April 2005. No, I�m not kidding. I have most everything electronically, but still�)
Now I hope I�m going to be able to help.
Anyway, I know I�m still lucky. I�m 40; I have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, OCD and now a knee that�s hurting. But it really could be a lot worse. And I know that.
So I will try not to wallow in this squalor for long. I�ve had enough of that recently!
