I suppose I can jump into this blogging-every-day thing by telling you about how I hurt my knee.

When I was in my early twenties I was at a club in Palo Alto, on a really terrible first date, in the middle of a mosh pit. Someone slammed into me, as it just so happens. My right knee buckled and I fell to the ground. I was in a lot of pain. I heard the sound of  the lights and then I passed out. A nice guy picked me up off the floor and helped me to a place where I could lie down,  compose myself, and get some first aide. Eventually my date found me and crankily took me home.

It turns out my knee had popped out. It took a long time for it to heal. I didn’t have insurance so I couldn’t afford to go to the doctor. Ever since then I have had problems with my knee popping from time to time. It has never been as painful as that first time, but it’s been a issue to the point where I have to be careful about the kinds of sports I can participate in. Slam dancing is out of the question, as is basketball, or skiing. And meditation, apparently.

I was at my weekly meditation group a couple of weeks ago and as I stood up from my seated half lotus position my knee popped. At first I thought it was going to be one of those moments where it would only hurt for a few seconds and then I’d be ok, but no. The pain gradually increased and I had to leave the mediation hall and sit outside in a chair to wait for my husband to pick me up. As I waited the pain built up and I could hear the sound of the lights. The nausea built up and I vomited. My husband pulled up in the car and we decided that I needed to go to urgent care. He drove home to grab the crutches and an ice pack and we made the 45 minute journey to urgent care (I live in a rural town). At urgent care they took an x-ray and didn’t see anything terrible. It was just a really bad sprain. They sent me home with a knee brace and told me to stay off of it for a few days.

It’s healing. Each day I feel better. I’m feeling more confident walking without a crutch at home, and am hoping this will extend to other parts of my life soon. I’m not sure when I will be able to go running again, which I can’t think about too much or it will bum me out. I’m really just focusing right now on healing.

I feel like I’ve come full circle. At 20 I injured myself in a mosh pit. At nearly 50 I injured myself meditating.

 

sigh.