I’m sure most, if not all of you who read my blog, know that I have a bad knee; a knee which I injure too many damn times, and therefore must have something wrong with it. It’s my right one, specifically, you know. The one I strain my tendons and ligaments in all the time? One wonders why I haven’t blown it yet, like destroyed my ACL or something.
Anyway, this morning I had Kinesiology lab and were were doing Manual Muscle Tests (testing a specific muscle group for strength and to see if there’s any pain, if there’s any at all) and goniometric measurements of the lower extremities (lower body, feet to hips, basically). Anyway, setting aside my minorly sprained ankle (which I may tell you about in a minute), I made a discovery about my knees.
Goniometry is the measurement of angles, basically. In kinesiology’s case, the angles are our joints, thus we’re measuring the range of motion of that joint. When measuring the knee, the start value is our knee extended, straightened, but not fully extended. When we measure the full extension of the knee, we’re measuring how much it hyper-extends. Sooooo, I got my knees’ ranges of motion measured.
When you measure the degree of extension when it comes to the knee, you prop the foot up on something—a sweatshirt, a book, something similar—and allow gravity to pull your knee “backwards” until it locks. My left knee was relatively normal, it’s extension range of motion was 3°, a relatively normal range. My right knee, on the other hand, was a completely different story.
When we propped it on the sweatshirt, it didn’t lock. This meant that it wasn’t fully extended. So, I tried to adjust my foot’s position, but by the time she actually took the measurement, it still wasn’t fully extended. But even with it not being fully extended, the measurement we got was 19°. So, I’m saying that my estimated ROM for my right knee is at least 20°. One of these days, I want to get a more accurate measure.
So, it totally threw me off when I found out my right knee was about 16° more extensible than my left knee. When I thought about it, I figured hey, maybe that’s why I’m having ligament and tendon problems with my right knee, and maybe that’s why I always hyper-extend my left.
So, anyone else have any thoughts to add to this? Any questions you might want to ask? I’ll answer what I can. So be sure to check your comments, because I don’t think I have a plug-in that notifies commenters if/when their comment is replied to.
Oh, before I go, I said I was gonna tell you about my ankle, right? Well, if I didn’t who cares? I’m telling you anyway!
Okay, so, last Friday, some of the female members of the track team met up to play Ultimate Frisbee (I’m not running track this year, unfortunately, so Coach probably hates me…). It was really fun and all.
So the field we were playing on, one of our endzones was actually sloped a little. You can sort of see where this is going. Well, towards the end of our scrimmage, I was on offense cherry picking the end zone. Kris… Kristen (?) threw me the frisbee, and I turned to try and catch it. When I missed, I turned back around and rolled my ankle REALLY bad. I felt a small pop, and it hurt like a BITCH for a while. I walked back over to our end (because we eventually scored), rubbed it a few times, and then shrugged it off and continued playing. While it didn’t hurt all that much (or maybe it did and I was too focused on the game to actually notice) during the game, when I finished eating and went back to my room, it was killing me. Later that night, it was swollen. With the advice of my good friend Steve (yes folks, he’s still very much alive), I propped it up on my desk and the swelling did go down.
I’m checking my ankle right now and… it looks like… there’s no swelling. But occasionally, when I walk, there’s a shooting pain that goes down my talus, and sometimes on the underside of my foot too. It’s not a crippling pain, but it’s noticeable enough to be annoying and slightly painful.
There you have it. Okay, leave comments with theories and questions if you have any. I’ll reply and answer what I can.
Let’s start out with today’s tournament game: We lost, 3-1. Mom says that Coach should put me up in midfield or foward: except for Stephanie Meno, the other fowards aren’t as experienced or whatever. I’m trying to be nice. Anyway, I guess overall we played an okay game. But I don’t know how we’re going to do for the rest of the season: We’re a young team, and I mean a young team. There’s only three seniors: Me, Maria and Teresa Mirabito.
To be honest, I don’t know why Coach won’t put me up at midfield or foward: Chelsa’s playing a stopper position, ad Kayla’s got one wing. Teresa’s sweeper, but we could have Darcie play left fullback, where I’ve been playing. She’s a good defender and she’s real good at not giving up. That way, she can get playing time, and I can help with offense. There were so many times I wanted to take the ball and run up the field, but the coaches want us to only send long balls to people who, no offense, are fast, but not fast enough. :sigh: Whatever. I just hope we do better as the season progresses, or, I’d hate to say it, but it won’t be a good wa to end my high school soccer career.
The other bad news? Well, me and my parents think we know what’s up with my shin: There’s a ligament from the knee to the ankle… or two ligament, one in my knee, and one in my ankle, which are being pulled/overstretched. Because of this, my shin’s getting pulled, and let me tell you it hurts like a BITCH when I run. What am I going to do about it? Well, first off, to help support the ligament in my ankle, I’m going to have to tape my ankle, and then wrap it with my ace bandage. I’m going to keep wearing my knee brace (and btw, I found my knee to be pretty swollen… damn it). It’ll help support my shin, and in turn, help me play longer. But I need to be careful: one wrong move, and I might tear that ligament, or really fuck up my shin, and then I’ll be out of commission for the rest of the season. The only thing I can do is hope.
Tomorrow we have our final tournament game against… I don’t know yet. But it’s at 1pm up at the high school field. If you want to come, then come watch.
Did I tell you that something’s up with my knee? I didn’t? Well, something is up with my knee. Don’t ask me what exactly is wrong with it, but it’s been bothering me for about a week now. It’s getting in the way of my soccer playing.
Today was our first scrimmage, right? I was playing defense… I guess I was doing an okay job… anyway, my knee wasn’t bothering me that bad at first… but my shin was killing me. I could barely jog without it hurting like a bitch. Imagine how it felt when I had to sprint back down the field to pick u[ the ball or an offender. Running back and forth… and back and forth… and back and forth… I only got a five minute break in between, and then I had to sub in for a midfielder, Keeley, who I think pulled her thigh (ouch), so I had to run every more, cause midfield does the most running. All in all, even with my… annyoances… I guess I did an okay job. Jim, my adopted gramps, might be able to vouge for me, though I still think I could have done better.
Today’s game was only a scrimmage. This Friday and Saturday is the Mang Tournament. We play B-G Friday at around 5 I think. I need to check on that, and then I’ll have to check back with you again once I know who and when we’re playing on Saturday. I think the Mang Tournament’s being held at Keith Clark Park (KCP), but I don’t know if we can cause of the flooding that happened a couple months ago… so if we aren’t playing at KCP, then we’re playing up at the school. I’ll update you further once I get some more info tomorrow.
Yup, you heard it from me folks, I messed up my foot again!! Wanna know how?
Soccer! I pulled the same ligament that I did when we all thought I might have sprained my ankle. And then I walked to school and walked to classes and stuff. Thank God I didn’t have gym today: we are required to run the mile (national physical fitness test).
Hopefuly, my foot will feel at least a little better for tomorrow: I have soccer practice and open volleyball, and I hate having to sit out and watch!
Well let’s just say Thursday wasn’t what I would call a good day.
The morning was pretty okay. Everything was fine. Until around third period.
I was going to get a drink in between periods when I felt something strange in my foot. It was on the arc, and on the side. It felt like everytime I tired to walk it would cramp up and hurt. So school ends, and I can’t really walk, so I call for a ride.
Mom checks my foot, and she says it looks like I might have sprained my ankle.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
!!
Soccer preactice started yesterday!! And now I can’t do anything! Anyway, me and Kasedy went to open volleyball at the gym, like we usually do. It was so depressing, cause I couldn’t play, and all I could do was sit and watch. I couldn’t even get the ball for them when they hit it towards me cause they ran over and got it instead God it sucks! Well, the people were very nice about it and kept me company while they where waiting to sub in. They all hoped I got better, and tried to cheer me up. And it worked. I feel so loved!
Righ now I’m not in school. Only because I can’t walk from one class to another. And I don’t know if mom’s going to get my ankle looked at by a doctor.
As for my ankle… At the moment I can feel some sort of pressure on my ankle, like swelling. And when I try to move it like when you walk or when I try to stretch, it hurts. So, the one and only thing I can do all da is sit on my ass, and do nothing except chill on my computer (MY computer that Dad finihsed for me and put up in my room, hells yea). And since this is the very first time I’ve eveer sprained my ankle (probably not the last), I have the distinct feeling I won’t be able to do muh for a while.
Damn it all! I hate not being able to get up and go places IT SUCKS!!
I’m injured again. Typical, right? Well here’s what happened: Last evening I was wrestiling around with Brian, and he had a grip on my left foot, so I start pulling to try and escape. Suddenly, my right ankle pops, and then hurts like hell. It’s been popping ever since, and if I bend it a certain way, it hurts like a mofo. Which majorly SUCKS sulk So much for playing soccer. Damnit! I was hoping to be UNINJURED long enough to play some soccer for a lil while. Well, I can’t really play soccer cause the v-ball nets are in the way. So, I play v-ball instead. So for now until the nets come down I’m playing v-ball. I’m not complaining, I love v-ball about 1/2 as much as I love soccer, and that’s saying alot. I just want to play soccer again. T_T but that’ll have towait… and hopefully by the time the nets come down, I won’t have to freakin’ worry about messing my ankle up… again _‘
Yup. I did it again. I disabled myself right before a soccer game…
:::sigh::: Why me???
Okay, here’s how it went down; We’re (Me, Kasedy, Andy S., Brian R., Brian P., Brian H., and Ethan H.*no relation to Brian H.*) playing Manhunt in the rain. The rain had nothing to do with it. So, everyone’s tagging everyone (except me). Then, Andy gets tagged. His primary target is me. So I hide behind a car (cause when I put a car between me and ‘it’, they can never catch me) waiting for him to come. Brian R., and Brian P. get to safe, and Ethan (he’s 5 yrs old btw) runs over to the little tree in front of my house and just stays there. He’s bent over something, and seems oblivious to everything around him. Brian R.’s yelling at Ethan to “get out of the way” and “move”.
It didn’t exactly work.
So, Andy gets to a point where I know I can make a break towards home.
I’m sure that everyone reading this can see where it’s going.
So I make a break. Ethan’s still standing there next to the tree. I’m sprinting as fast as I can go (which isn’t my fastest, because I’m getting sick), and I went to run around the tree. I’m not exactly sure what happens in actuallity, cause it happened so fast, so I’ll try to tell you what I think happened. I’m running around the tree and everything, but I cut around the tree too sharply, and crashed right into Ethan’s head. It wouldn’t of been painful if he hit my stomach, but what happened was, he hit my hip. he went flying into the dirt, my leg gives out (cause of the pain in my hip), and then I trip over the curb and hit my “good” knee (my left) on the pavement. Which hurt like a motherfucker Well, I had a bunch of witnesses, including Brian R., Brian P.(they were at safe), Andy (he was chasing me), and my parents (they were watching from the door.
So I fell, and almost immediately started crying (it hurt that bad). I hid my face so nobody would see, and I felt several people looming over me. My mother helped me up, and Dad carried me inside where I was checked out. I’m fine, except for a nicely bruised hip, and my knee hurts from the fall. I’m going to probably wear my brace tomorrow during the game. But I’m embarrased cause I was crying, cause when I cry in front of my friends I feel like a wimp.
So that’s the story (from my point of view). Anyone else who reads this blog will probably comment on it, telling the audience what they saw.
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