Knife day... June 19th

Going to do it... 9 days before we go to OBX. I'm so holding my breath that this solve this issue once and for all. I haven't even thought of being able to ride pain free for months...

Unbelievable....

So after thinking I have had an ITBS injury and doing everything and anything to make it better for 9 months I go have a 2nd opinion and he doesn't think its ITBS at all!!! I kind of had that thought enter my mind of the last 3 or so months when the pain wasn't right where I thought the ITB was. He says the pain and the swelling are just not in the right place to be ITBS. His theory and I say theory since there is no absolute proof on the MRI that this is the case, is that the Lateral Collateral Ligament (LCL) is what is being irritated by rubbing against something.

So I have two paths right now...
1. Keep doing what I'm doing and not ride and hope it gets better.
2. Allow someone to put me under the knife to "clean-up" that area of the knee.

I don't like the knife, but the idea of being able to bike w/o pain as early as August has some real appeal... The fact that the condition hasn't changed in 6 months doesn't give me real hope that #1 will allow me to what I want to do. Hmmm....

Hike with the kids

 Went to sugarloaf with the kids today. They had a blast running up and down the trails and climbing the rocks. Nick did much better than he did in the fall, he did everything but one steep uphill and lots of times didn't want me to hold his hand. We saw a lizard and a millipede on the trial which they thought was pretty cool. Nick fell asleep in the Jeep going home which I wasn't sure was possible with all the wind. I guess he's tired.

Rest of the pictures can be seen here

Look carefully or you will miss something!

 Always amazes me how many people when they hike just blow by things and miss the wildlife. At sugarloaf there are always way too many people hiking since its one of the nicer places to hike close to the Rockville/Gaithersburg/Germantown area. Here at the top I found that the lizards like to sun themselves on the rocks. Saw two big ones (probably 6-9 inches long) that startled me as I put my food on the rock. This common smaller Blue Tailed Lizard or Five-linked Skink didn't scare as easily and I could get a picture. Probably 20 people went by and nobody saw it... Oh well...

Hiking with Nick

Got the kids to myself until Monday so today after I dropped Angie off at preschool Nick and I went for a hike at Great Seneca Creek Park. Don't tell Angie, she hates when we do something and she's not around. Nick wasn't so sure about going in the beginning...

Eventually he got into it. Somewhere in the middle of the hike I explained how the sticks on the ground were from the trees. For the next 30 minutes he picked up every stick and tried to figure out what tree it came from. Needless to say its a progress killer. We did see a chipmunk, squirrel and deer which Nick was somewhat interested in. Towards the end we crossed a wooden bridge over a creek where Nick stopped for a good 15 minutes to pick up leaf after leaf and throw it in.

See the rest of the pictures here.

Where's Jim...

Well, I got sick of talking about the knee and nothing else was really going on so nothing really got posted...

So just to get it over with, the knee is the same, biking is still greatly curtailed. Going to get a 2nd opinion from a ortho next week.

However, summer is here so its time to have some fun. Hopefully some fun parties, some good hiking and maybe a trip here or there...

We shall see!

Knee Update

Wish there was more to say, but I think it comes down to its not better. Its healing (I think) but at this pace it could be 2009 before its normal. Stretching every day, ice 1-2x a day, hip strengthening 2-3x a week and even yoga. I have stronger hips and am more flexible, but the ITB still complains.

So today I got a cortisone shot. Lets see if it makes any difference and for how long. Doctor says that either path gives us some information. I'd like to take the path where it magically gets better please.