Day 110 - Cake

Last night, I saw Cake in concert. They were pretty good musically, but the lead singer, John McCrea, bummed me out with his hipster-doofus pretentiousness. But that annoying facade isn't evident in their songs, so I just tried to tune him out and enjoy the music. I snapped a photo, which apparently was against official Cake policy or whatever. You can recognize McCrea by the aura of hipster-doofusness that glows above him.

On a positive note, I did a fair amount of dancing at the show (and that was on top of the 20 minutes I had spent running on the treadmill earlier), and my knee felt pretty good this morning. Today, I walked all over DC, from the U Street area to Adams Morgan to Dupont Circle to Georgetown. Not sure how much distance I covered, but it must've been at least several miles. My knee feels a little stiff tonight, but that's probably mainly because I didn't have any tape on it today. Hopefully, it'll be feeling good by morning.

In the meantime, here's a Cake song that I've always liked, mainly because it reminds me of a girl I used to know:

Day 109 - 20 minutes

Today, I did 20 minutes of running on the treadmill, exceeding my personal best so far by 1/3. The knee feels OK. I'll see how it feels tomorrow.

Day 108 - Grapevine breakthrough

So today, my physical therapist cleared me for doing the grapevine and the shuffle --which if you don't know what these are, you're probably better off. But they're basically exercises that involve sideways torsion on the knees, so being cleared for doing those means my knee is gradually, albeit slowly, getting better. These exercises felt pretty good. I didn't notice any pain or discomfort at all. Next week, I might be cleared for jumping or agility or something. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, here's the late but brilliant Marvin Gaye doing his classic, I heard it through the grapevine:

Day 107 - Leg song Thursday - Paul McCartney sings the blues

I have no idea what this song is about, but I like it. And since I ran 15 minutes on the treadmill yesterday, it seems apropos: Paul McCartney's 3 Legs:



Here are the lyrics:

Well when I walk, when I walk
On my horse upon the hill (when I walk the horse upon a hill)
Well when I walk, walk walk walk
On my horse upon the hill (when I walk the horse upon a hill)
And I lay me down
Will my lover love me still
A dog is here, (a dog is here), a dog is there (a dog is there)
My dog he got three leg
But he cant run

Well when I thought, well I thought
When I thought you was my friend (when I thought I could call you my friend)
When I thought, when I thought
When I thought you was my friend (when I thought I could call you my friend)
But you laid me down, put my heart around the bend

A fly flies in (a fly flies in), a fly flies out (a fly flies out)
Most flies they got three leg, but mine got one.

Well when I fly when I fly when I fly,when I fly above the cloud
(when I fly above the man in the crowd)
Well when I fly when I fly when I fly,when I fly above the crowd
(when I fly above the man in the crowd)

You can knock me down with a feather, yes you could
But you know its not allowed (but you know its not allowed)

A dog is here, (a dog is here), a dog is there (a dog is there)
My dog he got three leg
But he cant run

My dog he got three leg
Your dog he got none

My dog he got three leg
Your dog he got none

My dog he got three leg
Your dog he got none

Day 106 - My new niece

My new niece, Beatrice, was born earlier today. I hope she has strong ACLs.

Day 105 - Weights (or waits)

I had physical therapy today and I'm now graduating to a regimen that involves more weight lifting. I'm also, hopefully, going to keep increasing my running time on the treadmill. The bursitis is still kind of present and I still need tape on my knee to get my knee cap tracking properly. But slowly and surely, I'm progressing. And at least I'm no longer stuck in an elevator.

Day 104 - Trapped in an elevator

Phew! If you've never been trapped in an elevator, trust me, you don't want to be. I got stuck in one today in DC's subway system, called Metro. Given Metro's reputation for careless accidents, I half-expected the elevator to explode or perhaps fly through the roof and soar about the sky, a la Willy Wonka. The elevator started going up, but stopped after about 1 foot. When I realized I was stuck, I pressed the down button. Nothing. The up button. Nothing. Door open, door close, up, down. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.

It finally dawned on me that I was trapped. I pressed the alarm bell. Nothing. There was another button for "emergency call." I didn't quite understand the difference between this and an alarm bell, but you don't question such things when trapped in an elevator, you just blindly press buttons, hoping something will set you free. The emergency call button appeared to be some sort of silent alarm channeled directly to Batman's secret residence, because it did absolutely nothing.

I began pressing it and simultaneously yelling out "Hello?", thinking, rather naively if you know anything about the ineptitude of Metro employees, that there might actually be somebody monitoring for communications coming from patrons trapped in elevators. Nobody answered.

At this point I began to wonder how airtight an elevator is and how much air I might have left. I could hear a ventilation fan running so I figured that meant I at least had fresh air coming in. I pressed the alarm bell, which did trigger a bell. I let it ring for several minutes. I didn't hear anybody or anything that indicated anyway was aware that I was stuck in the elevator. The location of the elevator is down a hall and far removed from the booth where a Metro employee sits. Thinking about this, I realized it was possible that a) the employee could not hear the bell, b) the employee could hear the bell but did not care, and/or c) the employee could hear the bell but had no idea what it meant and was hoping it stopped so they could get back to napping. I wondered if I would be spending the night in the elevator.

I then wondered if I could budge open the door. I first tried to pry them open. I couldn't move them at all. But there were two panels making up each door. I budged on the inside panel and the door started to move. Just a little. And then I was able to pry open the entire door. Only to be met with the closed outer door.

I tried prying open the outer door, but it was closed up tight and didn't move. There were no inner panels to budge on so I was stuck. Just then I heard voices. I looked out the tiny, dirty elevator window and I could see 2 Metro employees. But they weren't there to help me. They just happened to be walking by. "Hey! Hey!" I yelled. They finally heard me and came back. One guy tried to budge open the outer door, but he couldn't move it. After several tries, he gave up. "Hold on, we're getting somebody to help you," he said. And then he disappeared. What?!

That left me to continue to pry open the outer door while simultaneously using my feet and one arm to hold open the inner door. Which kept trying to close. At one point, a recorded voice came over the elevator's intercom and said "Please allow the doors to close."

"Fuck you," was my response.

After several minutes, a man's voice came over the intercom, "Hello, sir in the elevator."

"Yes?" I said.

"Sir?"

"Yes? Hello. Yes?!" I yelled, hoping he would hear. I wanted to move closer to wherever the intercom was, but I had no idea where the speaker was and I didn't want to risk allowing the doors to close, fearing that I might not be able to pry them open again.

"Sir?"

The damn intercom didn't even work. The emergency call button had probably been installed by Fisher-Price.

Another Metro employee appeared at the elevator door. He told me that the fire department was on its way. Apparently, only the fire department has the power to override the elevator and open the door. That is perhaps the stupidest thing I've heard all month (and I will point out that I live in DC, where Congress is located, so I hear some pretty stupid stuff just about every day).

At about this time, I noticed that the light on the elevator buttons had switched from up (my original direction) to down. That was important because when I was frantically pressing buttons before, nothing had happened at all. I wondered if I dared allowed the doors to close, would the elevator think it had arrived at its destination and open the doors normally?

Thinking the fire department would soon be axing or crowbarring their way inside soon anyway, I let the doors close. The elevator started moving down, ever so slowly. And then, just like that, poof, the doors opened.

When I finally got to the street, a fire engine was arriving, with sirens blaring and lights flashing.

Day 103 - Knee equivocation

So the knee kind of feels good and it kind of feels bad. I've left the tape off to give the rashed up area a chance to heal. I did a lot of walking yesterday after the treadmill running, so I was wondering how all that activity would affect it. The bursitis feels like it might be acting up a bit, but when I put on my new kicks and walked around my neighborhood, it felt ok. A couple of times, I've felt a few twinges, which I think was the knee cap not tracking properly. But that disappeared. So I'm really sort of stuck in limbo right now of not really good and not really bad.

I think that's a good sign though. If I can handle 10 minutes of running and a ton of walking and still feel marginally OK, then hopefully I'm gradually progressing. And yesterday, some kids in my neighborhood were selling lemonade and for an extra 5 cents they would give you your fortune. I would've been a fool to pass up a deal like that, especially in this lousy economy. The lemonade was ok, but my fortune was pretty good. The kids told me: You will live a long life. I took that to mean that my knee would eventually get better. So I've got that going for me.

DAy 102 - Rash-a-ma-tazz

The tape was helping, but now it's caused a rash. The first layer of tape is supposed to protect the skin from the harsher tape that forms the 2nd layer, but I guess my skin can only take so much. It's just a small patch, so I've covered it with a large band-aid to protect it and then applied tape over the top of that.

On a positive note, I clocked in 10 minutes of running on the treadmill this morning. The knee feels pretty good. The real test will be how it feels tomorrow, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Day 101 - Tripping over the brain

I haven't seen it discussed much, but I agree with this Sporting News article that psychological barriers can be one of the biggest hurdles in recovering after ACL reconstruction. In the article, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer, who has recovered from ACL surgery, gives this advice to Tom Brady, the New England quarterback who missed last season with an ACL tear:

"I would just tell him to be prepared for the mental obstacles when he gets back on the practice field -- and the game field," Palmer said. "You have to get over being uneasy about people being down around your feet and get over feeling like you need to step out of the way to protect yourself."

I haven't been anywhere near a soccer field since tearing my ACL, so I can't really say if the mental ghosts will haunt me if I do resume playing (I suspect they won't since I've wrecked on my bike several times and this somehow has not deterred my brain from throwing my body back in the saddle). But mental blocks can impede recovery in other ways.

You get used to limping in the first few weeks after surgery, so it becomes difficult to change and get back to your normal way of walking. You don't trust your knee, so you resist putting full weight on it even when they say it's ok to do so. Your knee heals at such a slow snail's pace that you begin to wonder if it will ever heal at all. After getting steadily better, your knee suddenly feels worse and you wonder if you'll ever be able to resume normal levels of activity without the damn thing becoming inflamed. And perhaps most of all, if you were an athlete before the surgery, it's difficult to be a couch-ridden gimp because you really want to get back to your sport.

The whole recovery process is fraught with mental trials. The best advice I know of is just to take it one day at a time. If it feels great, then plow through the rehab exercises. If it feels crappy, stay off of it. I have no advice for the problems Tom Brady might face, but he seems to be doing pretty well without my input.

Day 100 - Leg song Thursday

The classic from The Monks: Nice legs, shame about the face.

Day 99 - Knee feels good

The bursitis feels alright today, so maybe the running didn't aggravate it. I also ended up at work without tape on my knee because I woke up late and didn't have time to go through the rigamarole of putting on the tape. But it felt pretty good even going down steps, so maybe the tape has done its job. I taped it up when I got home though so I could work out.

I'll go running again tomorrow on the treadmill and see how everything is doing.

Day 98 - I run again

I bounced on the trampoline today in physical therapy. Actually, my feet weren't allowed to leave the canvas, so I more or less oscillated up and down. I won't be cleared for actual jumping for another week or two. After that, I was cleared for the treadmill, where I ran for 5 minutes. That's the most I've run in about 4 months. I assume this was a breakthrough moment, but my physical therapist was pretty low-key about it. I guess she doesn't really get excited about something unless it involves ice.

The running felt OK on my knee. Most importantly, all the parts where they drilled and cut into me felt fine, no pain. I felt some twinging at the site of my bursitis, but I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see whether that's really an issue. But I'm not too worried about that because bursitis is relatively easy to get rid of.

Later, my co-workers took me out for drinks for my birthday, which was last Friday. I had an Espresso Martini, which was delicious. It had cream and coffee in it, so it tasted more like a shake than a martini.

Day 97 - I run

I didn't have time to post about it but I took the knee out for a spin last week. It wasn't far, but it felt ok. I ran about 20-30 yards on the way to the gym. Then on the way back, I ran about 15 yards or so. The knee felt pretty good. And it didn't seem to be any worse for wear the next day, so I think that's a good sign.

My physical therapist didn't think it was a good idea, but I kind of ignore about half of what she says since most of what she says involves chastising me for not icing my knee, which, as I've already posted about, does nothing and is a waste of good frozen water. Tomorrow, I'm supposed to start plyometrics. I don't know what that means but it seems to have something to do with jumping on a trampoline. And probably ice.

Day 96 - Beach redux

I spent the weekend at the beach. I don't know if it was the tape or the beer that helped my knee, but either way it felt pretty good. As promised, here are the photos of the tape job on my knee.



Not sure if you can tell, but the tape consists of one strip across the knee cap, which serves to push the knee cap towards the inside of my leg. There's another strip that attaches to the bottom of my knee cap, loops underneath it and then swerves up the inside of my knee. This helps rotate my knee cap clockwise (if you're looking at it(this may get confusing if you're looking at the photo because it's reversed; the photo is of my left leg, but it looks like it's my right leg)). I did quite a bit of walking at the beach, but my knee felt pretty good. So hopefully the tape is doing its job.

Day 93 - Leg song Thursday - Twisted legs angel

Garrincha never got the recognition of Pele, but some regard him as one of the best dribblers in the history of the sport. The amazing thing is he was able to do this despite several deformities in his legs. One source describes Garrincha, who was also nicknamed the twisted legs angel, thusly:

He had several birth defects: his spine was deformed, his right leg bent inwards and his left leg six centimeters shorter and curved outwards, all of which did not impede him to play football at the top level, due to his skills at ball control and dribbling, as well as his effective shot with either foot -- an example of which are the goals in World Cups against England in 1962 and Bulgaria in 1966.

Watch and be amazed:

Day 92 - Mastodon blows my knee off

I went to see this band Mastodon last night. They're a speed metal /death metal band or whatever the kids are calling it nowadays. I have no idea why I even bought tickets to this show. It was pretty awful. I hope the intense vibration somehow helped my knee. Hmm, probably not. Anyway, I have photos of my taped knee, which I'll post tomorrow.

Day 90 - Tale of the tape

So I've been wearing tape on my knee for the past week. I have to say it's helped. I think my knee cap had sort of slid off to the side as a result of the surgery/healing/etc. The tape helps hold it in the right alignment so it tracks properly. There's definitely less pain with the tape than without. But I'll know more tomorrow after physical therapy. I'll see if I can get a good photo of the tape job too so you can see what it looks like.

Day 87 - Book Review Saturday - Beat the Reaper

So if you like eclectic, medical stories (and you must or why would you be reading this blog?), I highly recommend Josh Bazell's new book Beat the Reaper. It's a fast-paced thriller (I'm not sure what that means exactly but that's what they're calling it) about a former Mafia guy turned doctor. Now, I know that sounds kind of boring. I was bored when I first read the description too. But Bazell, who is a physician, has created a character, Pietro Brnwa, who is a fascinating mix of a thug who's funny, witty, worldly and knowledgeable. And he takes you on a ride that will have you laughing while learning about medicine, the Holocaust and the Witness Protection program. Oh, and this book is also knee-related because one of the storylines revolves around a woman who's been diagnosed with cancer of the knee. And you won't believe the ending. All I'll say about that is remember Chekhov's famous advice: "a pistol on the wall in the first act must be fired by the last act."

Here's an excerpt from the beginning of the book:

So I'm on my way to work and I stop to watch a pigeon fight a rat in the snow, and some fuckhead tries to mug me! Naturally there's a gun. He comes up behind me and sticks it into the base of my skull. It's cold, and it actually feels sort of good, in an acupressure kind of way. "Take it easy, Doc," he says.

Which explains that, at least. Even at five in the morning, I'm not the kind of guy you mug. I look like an Easter Island sculpture of a longshoreman. But the fuckhead can see the blue scrub pants under my overcoat, and the ventilated green plastic clogs, so he thinks I've got drugs and money on me. And maybe that I've takensome kind of oath not to kick his fuckhead ass for trying to mug me.

I barely have enough drugs and money to get me through the day. And the only oath I took, as I recall, was to first do no harm. I'm thinking we're past that point.

"Okay," I say, raising my hands.

The rat and the pigeon run away. Chickenshits.

I turn around, which rolls the gun off my skull and leaves my raised right hand above the fuckhead's arm. I wrap his elbow and jerk upwards, causing the ligaments to pop like champagne corks.

Let's take a moment to smell the rose known as the elbow.

The two bones of the forearm, the ulna and the radius, move independently of each other, and also rotate. You can see this by turning your hand from palm up, in which position the ulna and radius are parallel, to palm down, where they're crossed into an "X."[ 1 ] They therefore require a complicated anchoring system at the elbow, with the ligaments wrapping the various bone ends in spoolable and unspoolable ribbons that look like the tape on the handle of a tennis racket. It's a shame to tear these ligaments apart.

But the fuckhead and I have a worse problem right now. Namely that while my right hand has been fucking up his elbow, my left, having somehow come into position by my right ear, is now hooking toward his throat in a knife-edge.

And it just gets better from there.

Day 86 - Leg song Thursday: She without arm, he without leg

This seems to make people cry. Enjoy:

Day 85 - Branford Marsalis jazzes my knee off

Tonight, I'm in NYC. I have tape on my knee, a technique called McConnell taping that's supposed to help lift the knee cap from sensitive areas. My physical therapist thought it might help take some pressure off the areas that are causing me pain.

More importantly, I saw Branford Marsalis at the Jazz Standard. It was a great show. I snapped the photo to the right. It's a horrible photo because a) the iPhone has a horrible, awful, crummy lens and b) all photos were illegal, so I had to pretend like I was checking my email or something and not really taking a photo. This is harder than it sounds. I think I nearly gave myself a concussion.

So if you really want to see what Branford and his band both look like and sound like, here's a video for you:

Day 84 - Thumbs up for my knee

One thing I've learned about recovering from ACL reconstruction is that I have absolutely no idea whether I'm where I'm supposed to be or not. I thought I was struggling and even going backwards over the past couple of weeks because I was anticipating being cleared for running this week, but my knee was not cooperating, so I was fearing something had gone wrong (maybe my surgeon screwed up and left a sponge or like a small nurse inside of me?!). But I saw my surgeon today and he said, "Your expectations are too high." Actually, all my expectations come from what he's told me, so I think it would've been more accurate if he had said, "I'm a horrible communicator. Please just kind of ignore what I say."

He went on to say that I was right where I should be. Everything is progressing normally. The graft feels great. My flexibility is impressive. And I'm perhaps the most awesome man he's ever met. Oh wait, I may have made up that last part. But then again, given my surgeon's horrible communication skills, maybe he did say that. So anyway, I feel better after all that.

He thinks I could be OK for running come next week. So here's keeping my fingers crossed, because my b-day is next Friday. It'd be nice to celebrate getting older by being able to resume running. And in that spirit, here's another song by Ben Harper:

Ben Harper - Fight Outta You
Uploaded by thatsfunny

Day 83 - Ben Harper rocks my knees off

Still resting the knee (which does not seem to be improving), but tonight I saw Ben Harper's new band, Relentless7. I couldn't find any youtube clips of his new band that had good sound quality, so here's one of my fav's from his old days with the Innocent Criminals (if you have a soul at all, you owe it to yourself to check out this guy's music):

Day 82 - Hulu-hoop

Still resting the knee, hoping its healing. A good site for resting and couch potatoing the day away is Hulu.com. If you haven't already discovered it, check it out. You can watch movies, TV shows, documentaries, even sporting events. All for free somehow. I'm not sure how that works, but I'm not asking any questions.

Day 81 - Not dead, just resting

I was supposed to be cleared for running yesterday, but my knee was kind of swollen and stiff. Not sure what caused that, but I've decided to rest it over the weekend and see if it improves. It already feels a bit better today, so hopefully this is just a temporary setback and I'll be back on course in no time.

Day 79 - Leg song Thursday

This ain't so much a song as a video. Last week, we had Crazy Legs, so it seems only appropriate to go to the other extreme this week with Lazy Legs, an amazing disabled break dancer: