Weigh Day (week thirty-three)

This past week has been pretty interesting…in the best possible ways this time (thank goodness).

I found out my meniscus is definitely *not* torn (woo hoo!) and that all my tendons and ligaments are completely in tact (another woo hoo!).  So, what is up with this knee???  Severe patellofemoral arthritis syndrome.  What that means (for those of you who have no idea – which was me just earlier this week) is pretty much my entire knee joint is flared up and irritated giving me arthritis symptoms.  However, it is not true arthritis because I can correct it with the proper exercises and stretches (and rarely this requires surgical intervention).  This is “best case scenario” as far as all of the things that could have been wrong with my knee.  It means, though, that I am not allowed to run, jump, skip, hop, lunge, squat, or do leg presses until I correct this knee…which could take some time.  So, my “jump rope successfully” goal has to be put on hold…for now.

*How* I ended up with patellofemoral arthritis syndrome in the first place…
Well, my left side is a little wonky.  By “wonky” I mean my whole left leg does not “track” correctly.  I cannot do a proper leg lift with my left foot pointed forward (like I can with my right).  Because of this malalignment, I walk awkwardly.  Now, you would not notice it unless you were *really* looking at my left leg as I stroll…but my left foot turns out a little and causes my knee to bend sideways (slightly) instead of completely straight.  This, of course, causes my knee cap to temporarily dislocate every single time I bend my knee.  It has always been this way, but now that I am *WAY* more active than I have ever been in my whole life these symptoms have surfaced.  With all of the running, jumping, lunging, and squatting I have been doing, I have put significant pressure on my knee as the cap dislocates.  This, of course, causes inflammation in all the soft tissue behind the knee cap.  It is really fun stuff…really.

Anyway, moving on…  My shoulder is feeling much better this week.  Still a teeny bit of discomfort doing certain things, but overall *tons* better than before the cortizone shot the Dr. gave me.

Yesterday was my birthday…my 30th birthday.  It was a mellow day…much more mellow than I hoped for, but whatever.  No surprises.  No party.  No family (other than my mother, whom I see nearly every day).  Only one friend (my bestie, Leslie).  I even had to plan dinner for myself.  Go figure.  At any rate, I spent the dinner with my chicklets and came home for a movie…and slept late this morning.  All in all, I guess it could have been much worse.

This morning I was doing a little happy dance after stepping off the scale.  That nice little fella showed me 230.2 this morning!  Of course I am going to be happy with a 4.2 pound loss from last week, right?!  It might have something to do with that 6-mile run I did on the Neil Armstrong machine Friday night…which is okay to do even with my knee because it does not put the high impact pressure on my knee joints (just in case you were wondering).

With a loss like this, my “I’m going to be under 200 by June 1st” goal is looking great:

GOAL TRACKER:
13 weeks; 5 days
30.4 pounds

Was your week as good as mine?!

-Erica