A prayer to the knee gods
Oct. 4th, 2006 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
la_belle_laideWhen this happens, doesn't it always happen in autumn? I mess up my knee every autumn, it seems, and each time it depresses me and worries me, and then each time it seems to resolve itself. Let's hope it works this time, too.
We did kicks in Kung Fu, real hardcore combinations that felt awesome. I had no problem with them. It bugged me out that I was doing so well, and Sifu just wasn't seeing it (I was in the back.) But I still kept doing my best, because what it comes down to is that this isn't about belts and praise, it's about me and my health and my welfare. So that was during basics. Then it was time for blackbelt club and in the interval while the basics students were packign up to leave, a few of us just got on the mat and started doing random things. Chris K. and Sifu were doing these awesome backwards roundhouse and hook kicks, and I tried to do a few, too. That's not where the problem was.
Now desperate for Sifu to say, "Hey, good job!" I decided to do one of the two things that no one else in the class can do but me. The first is the Matrix backbend (or even a full backbend) and the second is the unicorn-lotus thing, you know, where you twist all the way to the ground like a corkscrew and then untwist back up. Why I chose to do that one after all those kicks had loosened my joints, I don't even know. But when my knee popped out of place, it sounded like a dull gunshot. When I grabbed my calf in both hands and popped it back in, another dull gunshot. Then immediate panic.
So we went outside and I dug through my car until I found my crappy knee brace (WHERE the hell is my good knee brace?!) I wore it all during the sword form, and honestly I wasn't even at 50%. Not only did I not do the jump crescent, I hardly did any of the steel steps or cross steps, or when I did them, I did them high. After the class I was going back upstairs to get my stuff and Sifu said, "I don't like the way you're walking." I told him what I had done ("You know Stuart from Mad TV? Look what I can do? That's me.") and he explained how the tendon that holds the knee slips and the knee can get knocked loose. Which was exaclty what happened. I told him what I was trying to do (and I stressed, "You know, which is so cool since I'm the only one who can do it?" Which is really not true when Raquel is there, but whatever. ;D ) and he said that that's a move where if you lose your concentration for a second and let your joints get too loose, popping your knee is exactly what happens. "It takes amazing control. That's why it's so impressive." I told him, "Yeah. But I won't be doing it for a while." He told me the usual thing athletes get told: Ice, rest, elevation. After class Tracy gave me some of his knee joint iontment (he just recently had the surgery that I had 13 years ago.)
These are good people who are always there for their training family, you know? But when I came home, I was so depressed. I never want there to come a time when I'm not coming home a few times a week drenched in sweat and flat-out exhausted. And things like this worry me, that I might have to slow down sometime. I hate NOT overdoing it. It's not an age thing: this all started to happen when I was 20. Actually earlier, when I was 12 and they told me I had "trick knees." "Trick" here meaning "totally defective." It wasn't until I was 20 and went in for the surgery that they had all sorts of names for it, like "advanced early arthritis" and "Osgood-Schlatter". So anyway, I came home all depressed and worried, and then I remembered how this does tend to happen once in a while. It was actually a few years ago, I think, when it happened while I was in bed after a spider fell on me or something. That was pretty bad, too. And all I did then was wear a brace for a while and ignore it. I guess I'll go back to my chiropractor and have him do soem adjustments, too, because that always helps.
That aside, though, it was a great night. As some of you know, one of the wonderful folks at Kung Fu--someone I care about and admire very much--has been seriously ill with a rare cancer, and has recently come home from a bone marrow transplant (which did not go without complications.) She had to board her cat at the hospital where I work, and we all at the school took up a collection to offset the stratospheric cost of this. As it happens, though, my boss decided not to charge her at all, which means that all the money we collected can go right to her for whatever she needs. I mean, we collected for MONTHS and all donated, set up sales, had that huge party last week in her honor and everything. One of the fine ladies put all the cash into a money order and got a card that we all signed.
I mean, the Kung Fu family is fractured in some ways, but never let it be said that this group of people don't do the right thing when it counts. They totally do, and that's why they RULE.
Anyway. Good knee vibes, please? I also appeal to my Jo-si: I dust and polish your shrine every chance I get and I only hit you guys with the wooden sword once! Please look after your Si-mui?
And besides: What WOULD Jackie do? He would totally keep going, wouldn't he? Jackie never lets anything stop him. ^_^
We did kicks in Kung Fu, real hardcore combinations that felt awesome. I had no problem with them. It bugged me out that I was doing so well, and Sifu just wasn't seeing it (I was in the back.) But I still kept doing my best, because what it comes down to is that this isn't about belts and praise, it's about me and my health and my welfare. So that was during basics. Then it was time for blackbelt club and in the interval while the basics students were packign up to leave, a few of us just got on the mat and started doing random things. Chris K. and Sifu were doing these awesome backwards roundhouse and hook kicks, and I tried to do a few, too. That's not where the problem was.
Now desperate for Sifu to say, "Hey, good job!" I decided to do one of the two things that no one else in the class can do but me. The first is the Matrix backbend (or even a full backbend) and the second is the unicorn-lotus thing, you know, where you twist all the way to the ground like a corkscrew and then untwist back up. Why I chose to do that one after all those kicks had loosened my joints, I don't even know. But when my knee popped out of place, it sounded like a dull gunshot. When I grabbed my calf in both hands and popped it back in, another dull gunshot. Then immediate panic.
So we went outside and I dug through my car until I found my crappy knee brace (WHERE the hell is my good knee brace?!) I wore it all during the sword form, and honestly I wasn't even at 50%. Not only did I not do the jump crescent, I hardly did any of the steel steps or cross steps, or when I did them, I did them high. After the class I was going back upstairs to get my stuff and Sifu said, "I don't like the way you're walking." I told him what I had done ("You know Stuart from Mad TV? Look what I can do? That's me.") and he explained how the tendon that holds the knee slips and the knee can get knocked loose. Which was exaclty what happened. I told him what I was trying to do (and I stressed, "You know, which is so cool since I'm the only one who can do it?" Which is really not true when Raquel is there, but whatever. ;D ) and he said that that's a move where if you lose your concentration for a second and let your joints get too loose, popping your knee is exactly what happens. "It takes amazing control. That's why it's so impressive." I told him, "Yeah. But I won't be doing it for a while." He told me the usual thing athletes get told: Ice, rest, elevation. After class Tracy gave me some of his knee joint iontment (he just recently had the surgery that I had 13 years ago.)
These are good people who are always there for their training family, you know? But when I came home, I was so depressed. I never want there to come a time when I'm not coming home a few times a week drenched in sweat and flat-out exhausted. And things like this worry me, that I might have to slow down sometime. I hate NOT overdoing it. It's not an age thing: this all started to happen when I was 20. Actually earlier, when I was 12 and they told me I had "trick knees." "Trick" here meaning "totally defective." It wasn't until I was 20 and went in for the surgery that they had all sorts of names for it, like "advanced early arthritis" and "Osgood-Schlatter". So anyway, I came home all depressed and worried, and then I remembered how this does tend to happen once in a while. It was actually a few years ago, I think, when it happened while I was in bed after a spider fell on me or something. That was pretty bad, too. And all I did then was wear a brace for a while and ignore it. I guess I'll go back to my chiropractor and have him do soem adjustments, too, because that always helps.
That aside, though, it was a great night. As some of you know, one of the wonderful folks at Kung Fu--someone I care about and admire very much--has been seriously ill with a rare cancer, and has recently come home from a bone marrow transplant (which did not go without complications.) She had to board her cat at the hospital where I work, and we all at the school took up a collection to offset the stratospheric cost of this. As it happens, though, my boss decided not to charge her at all, which means that all the money we collected can go right to her for whatever she needs. I mean, we collected for MONTHS and all donated, set up sales, had that huge party last week in her honor and everything. One of the fine ladies put all the cash into a money order and got a card that we all signed.
I mean, the Kung Fu family is fractured in some ways, but never let it be said that this group of people don't do the right thing when it counts. They totally do, and that's why they RULE.
Anyway. Good knee vibes, please? I also appeal to my Jo-si: I dust and polish your shrine every chance I get and I only hit you guys with the wooden sword once! Please look after your Si-mui?
And besides: What WOULD Jackie do? He would totally keep going, wouldn't he? Jackie never lets anything stop him. ^_^
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-05 03:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-05 03:08 am (UTC)Thanks so much for the good vibes! I'll be wearing my brace all tomorrow at work and probably Friday, and will totally take it easy in class Saturday. :)