Biting the bullet

Oh, how true this is for me today. While I won't bore you with the saga of my knee problems, I will tell you that physical therapy helped me a lot. The idea was for me to get moving again and hopefully without as much pain. On the recommendation of my physical therapist, I decided to go somewhere I could start riding a bike. My misadventures with riding a bike on the road had me pretty fearful of trying again. So, I joined a local gym. It was a place I had been to previously and loved when I was 30 lbs lighter and swimming. I actually joined on the first of October but was afraid to try. My PT doctor essentially released me from his care and said to call him if I had any problems. Gee thanks....I just get used to this, and now you are leaving me. Anyway, today was the day. I put on my workout clothes and called down to Hunnybunny, "I'm headed to the gym," . "Okay, " he called back, trying hard not to sound very surprised. Believe me, I was surprised. Being a fat girl walking into a gym is very intimidating. But nontheless, I found a stationary bike that looked doable. It was complete with built-in fan, television, and computer system that kept track of my rpm's, heart rate, miles/distance traveled. Pretty snazzy. I ended up riding for 33 minutes with a distance of 4 miles. Not bad. I also tried the new and improved stairmaster and made it 2 flights of stairs. If you knew how bad my knee hurts, you would be impressed. 
Now I have to figure out how to do this: how many times a week, for how long and what to add. It will be interesting!

The Judge- A movie review

So, Hunnybunny took me to see Robert Downey, JR and Robert Duval in "The Judge".  I had seen the trailers, and loved just about every movie that they both were in. And truthfully, Tony Stark has done wonders for RDJ's career. The role helped him branch out as an actor. And it really shows in this film.

There are no spoilers here, so don't look for me to give anything away. The family dynamics are true to form. Robert Duval plays the perfect curmudgeon. Maybe you didn't know that the title of this blog pays homage to  my former life as paralegal. I did love the law, but lawyers were another story. They were fairly abusive and narcissistic. But courtroom theatrics were not the subject of this movie.

We get to see RDJ as a lawyer, dad, husband, son, and former resident of his hometown. So, while it would have been cool to see JUST the lawyer, the other roles were far more interesting.

Hank Palmer, (RDJ) also has to face his past demons, something RDJ has had plenty of experience with this past decade.  His dad, Judge Palmer, (Robert Duval) has his own problems which come to light while Hank Palmer has been home. 

My favorite line was "I have the work ethic of the Amish!" I think I'll be stealing that one in the future. 

Anyway, go see it and prove that we can enjoy a thinking, feeling movie just as much as a "shoot 'em up". It was awesome!

Beatles Quilt progress

So, here we are .....just five years later. Looks like the top is done. I keep thinking I will add another border or something, but honestly...I just want to get it quilted. The Legal Adult is absolutely thrilled. I guess he had just about given up on me. I bought black for the back of it, and I think I'm going to use colored thread in the bobbin to show up on the back. I just haven't figured it out yet. I have this cool dragonfly quilting stencil that I want to use on the back. Yeah, yeah....I know. Why don't I have musical notes or something like that. I don't know why, either. But anyway....

I wish I could find the motivation to want to more to this quilt, but I just don't have the energy for it. Truthfully, I am sick of working on this. I have a whole list of others I want to work on. Most people work on many simultaneously, but I have never been that organized. My goal for this year is to make at least 2 quilts. I've also been toying with the idea of getting a new machine. My dream has always been to have a Bernina.

But I'm having a hard time figuring out which machine to look into. Anybody have any ideas?

Not quite what I was expecting

Well, this is a pretty good duplicate of what happened with my knee. A complex tear of the medial meniscus was the diagnosis, but what I THOUGHT was they would do surgery. Uh, no...they said, I'm so sorry. But the tear is in a GOOD place and if we remove it, you will have bone on bone. I was so angry.  I just wanted this to be over with. The doctor is supposedly the very best in our area. Her bedside manner, not so much. I couldn't help that tears were rolling down my face after they told me. All she said was, " I know that's not what you wanted." (You think, Doc?) "And we are going to send you to physical therapy and see where we are after that." Lovely.
So, I have had 5 appointments now. And today the therapist informed me I have a dislocated tibia. He moved it back into place, which really hurt, by the way, and then, taped it. It feels much better right now. They are also using a PT therapy for the inflammation of the MCL/Medical Meniscus area called iontophoresis. They use electricity to drive drugs through the skin. The deal is the drug they use has to be ionizable (electrically charged).  Dexamethasone is the steroidal anti-inflammatory they use, and yeah, it hurts like a bunch of bee stings. Then it chills out, and begins to feel much better.  The therapist finishes with ultrasound therapy. And the jury is still out on what that is supposed to do, but they tell me it promotes healing.
While it is true that wasn't what I wanted to hear, I'm sure it's what needed to happen. My PT guy has told me to get more exercise, so Hunnybunny and I joined a gym. I'm really surprised he wants to work out with me, but I will take what I can get.