Another two weeks gone by

Perhaps when I was writing something here every day, it was overkill. But, being too busy to post more than a couple times a month doesn't seem right either, unless no one reads what I write.

Let's see, right after my last post, my mom went into the hospital and things didn't sound very good. So, we abandoned our family plans for the 4th of July weekend and headed to PA to visit my mom and see other family. Luckily, my mom recovered very quickly and by the end of the weekend, she was ready to be discharged from the hospital.

I got to spend some time with my sister and uncle, who I don't see often enough. My wife and I did a few runs in brutal heat, but we got out there.

I got in a few good weightlifting workouts over the past two weeks.

While running, my left knee continue to bother me. I had a chiropractor appointment on 7/2, and the chiropractor, who works with some other docs in a sports med clinic, referred me to the orthopedist to figure out my knee.

Then, my lawn mowers died. Well, one was already on life support and my son killed the other one. For about three grand, I got a nice new John Deere hat, but it came with a free lawn tractor. I'm still not sure if I won or lost that one. That was a nasty hit on top of having to replace the kitchen stove earlier this summer.

Then last Friday, our drinking water (from a well) started to get cloudy. We deemed it undrinkable, but didn't really panic until the water turned dark gray on Sunday. Last night, I flushed our basement water tank and turned off the water. Tonight, I'll turn things back on and see if there is any improvement, but I'm not counting on that. If we need a major repair to our well or pipes, it could cost more than a stove and tractor combined.

Well, at least I have health insurance. I went to the orthopedist this morning. He was grossed out by the noises my knee was making. He took lots of X-rays. Those didn't look too bad, although he saw a couple bone spurs that might be causing the clicking. He said it also looked like I had grade 1 (mildest form) of osteoarthritis in my left knee. Given my larger-than-the-average-runner size and the number of miles and races I've done in the past 25 years, plus an ACL replacement, he thought the knee was in pretty good shape. But, he was also sympathetic to the issues I was having. He then used an ultrasound to look at the meniscus as much as possible. He didn't see any glaring issues there. So, he suggested Synvisc, but told me I could wait a while and think it over. He also told me I could get it done in three sessions or one "big" session. I thought it over for a few minutes, and I guess the ultrarunner in me came out. I went for the do it now, do it big option. The single injection cost $750, so my visit to the doc today had to cost in excess of $1000. The injection itself was uncomfortable, but I got through it OK. Now, I have to rest the leg completely for two days and then ease back into running.

Oh yeah, work is interesting with the addition of a new CEO to our small company this week.

This weekend, I'm planning to volunteer and hopefully pace at the Vermont 100 mile run.