My Knees

One of the more frustrating things that I have had to deal with while here in Buenos Aires has nothing at all to do with the country, or the language, or my thesis research – it is my knees.

Somehow, I think as a result of moving all of my furniture and many boxes into storage at the end of the year, I managed to hurt my right knee over six weeks ago. In the weeks immediately following, I thought that refraining from hard exercise would be enough to make it get better, but it only got worse. In addition, my left knee started really hurting as well. For the entirety of my month here (because today marks a month since I arrived!), I have been dealing with two bad knees. They don’t always hurt, but I generally can’t bend them very far, or do much activity with him. Walking up and down the four flights of stairs to the apartment where I am staying is a slow affair, and gym classes are embarrassing – as I might have mentioned before, the gym I go to is attended almost exclusively by older women, and yet I can do much less than all of them in the classes I go to. I also can't go to all the classes I want to, as I have been warned against cycling and kickboxing (normally two of my favorites). And not being able to give 100% in any exercise class I do attend is a very disheartening experience. I also had to give up on my initial plan to run the 10k at Sweet Pea when I got back to Bozeman, as running right now is out of the question.

About two weeks ago, I decided I really needed to get serious about fixing the problem, and started a strict regimen of ice, 3x/day. Since then, I have added heating pads and I wear a knee brace around the house sometimes. And they are improving… but I’m still nowhere near where I usually am. I’m a little unsure of where to go from here, because most sites I see online only reference using ice for a few days – for those of you who know, should I continue icing every day? Alternate between hot and cold? A few days on, a few days off?

I guess this is an exercise in patience, but I never expected to be fighting my own body this much as a 21 year old. My roommate here and my mom have mentioned acupuncture as a possible option when I go home, something that I am extremely hesitant to do. But I really want to be able to go hiking and running and do everything that I love to do when I am in Montana. It’s bad enough not being able to feel my best or do the things I want to do here, but in Bozeman it will be ten times worse :(

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On a brighter note, I am headed to Colonia, Uruguay for the weekend tomorrow. Another passport stamp, here we come!