Excitement is in the Air of What Will Come

I voted last week via absentee voting as I will be flying to Orlando on Election Day - which is a drag because I want to be sitting at Busboys and Poets in DC watching Jon Stewart and the election returns. Voting took about 1 1/2 hours and election workers said that is how it was all week. Someone asked the best time to come back to vote and the election worker said at 8:30 am as there usually is only around 10 people in line when the office first opens.

I pass the building where one votes in DC on my way to work. On Friday, at 8:30 am, the line was so long it continued out on the sidewalk and then some. I saw on the news last night that people in Georgia waited 10 hours to vote early. The media has been reporting long lines across the nation. Has this ever happened in any other election? Have Americans ever been so excited by an election? Will we finally see an 80% turnout (in 2004 it was 61 percent — which was the highest level since 1968)? I could only imagine what the lines are going to be like on Election Day. Be prepared to wait!

Creating more excitement was Obama's "infomercial" on Wednesday evening. Although I wasn't too keen on the idea that something like this should be aired, I watched it anyway. I must admit, I did get excited. Obama is a very dynamic speaker as witnessed by the massive audiences he draws. I do not believe either candidate will be able to quickly end our economic crisis or alleviate all the problems they will inherit. But what Obama is able to do is to create hope and optimism so that perhaps we, as Americans, can get excited about our future and continue to get through these tough times. He is charismatic and can lift our spirits. He is supported in the international community and because of this, if Obama becomes President, the United States may once again be a country looked up to with admiration and respect, instead of despised.

Another thing to look at is how are we going to remember this President after he leaves office? When one remembers past Presidents, what do we remember most of all about them? There's our first President, Washington, as the "Father of our Country" and Lincoln as "Honest Abe". Moving ahead to today, George W. is the "War President" getting us into a war we should not be in and costing the country $595 billion (as of 1/11/08) and over 4,000 lives of our fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and neighbors. George H. Bush doesn't fair much better being referred to as "The Wimp President". Unfortunately, for Clinton, he may best remembered as "Clitton" because of his stint with an intern; and before that "Slick Willie". Ford, well, you remember the SNL skits and then there's good old "Tricky Dick". Skipping a few presidents, we get to Kennedy, the "King of Camelot" that inspired so many with his orations ("ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country). I was too young to form an opinion back then but I now think of him as a charismatic, exciting leader and wish we had that now - and I think we do. And that is how I think Obama will be remembered if he becomes our 44th President.

See what I mean and even more.

When Will This be Over?

By this, I actually mean two things: the election and my knee recovery. Both seemed to have gone on forever. Did you know over $1 billion has been raised and spent on the 2008 Presidential campaign (Disbursements -$1,394,012,631; see FEC website). Could not have that money have been spent more wisely on education, transportation, housing, etc. etc. One will finally be over on November 4; the other - my knee recovery - seems to have no end in sight.

As for the knee, I’m getting impatient and wondering when I will not feel or think about my leg and knee on a daily, if not hourly, basis and when I can get back to my normal activities. It’s now over 5 months since I had ACL surgery and, among many things, I still have stiffness when I sit and get up, have pain in the back of my leg when I sit, especially in a car; and most importantly, still cannot run, let alone even attempt yoga.

I did attempt running for 4 blocks and had pain from almost the first step but I assumed it was the “good” pain the doc talked about. I had grand plans to add 2 block every week but that never happened. Instead I stopped running because I believe I overdid it on my bike. I rode my mountain bike 3 days in a row in Pennsylvania as the fall foliage was in full swing and Mother Nature was cooperating – it was so nice. The first 2 days were fine but I had some pain on the 3rd day so I took it easy. However, after the ride, I walked down and back up a very steep hill and I think the knee just said enough is enough. I’m hoping to try running again the end of this week. So that’s the update on the knee.

As for the election, I voted last week, via absentee voting, since I will be flying to Florida on election day. It took almost 1 and ½ hours for something I thought I’d be in and out. So for all of you voting on November 4, prepare for lines. I’d rather be in DC and watching the returns as the environment will be very pro-Obama and the Democrats and I think it will be fun. But, I’ll be in Orlando. The only silver lining is I’ll get to see the ducks at the Peabody hotel.

If you don’t vote, you can’t complain!

Around 5 Months or So

It's been some time since I posted and it's now about 5 months post surgery. I am now doing most things I did pre-injury at the gym. I have ridden my mountain bike a couple of times and that was fine. However, running is still not easy. I started running about 4 blocks twice a week. My knee hurts and I will check with the doc to see if the hurt is the "good" pain or the "bad" pain. If it's the "good" pain, I will up the ante and add on a few more blocks each week. I still haven't even tried yoga as I still can't touch my foot to my rear. I try this each am along with several other stretches. So that's where I am 5 months post surgery.

Another One Bites the Dust

Well it appears another big name in the sports world has joined the growing list of folks who did big time damage to their ACL. If suspicions are confirmed, Tom Brady, the New England Patriot’s three-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback and reigning National Football League most valuable player, will be undergoing surgery for a torn ACL. Brady joins Tiger Woods along with what appears to be a weekly addition to this ever growing list – including myself (although I am not known in the sports world, only my world).

Before I tore my ACL and had surgery, I never noticed, let alone read, about ACL injuries. I did not even know what an ACL was before my injury. Now it seems all I see is ACL injury reports. Another report I read was about a Penn State player who tore his ACL last Saturday; last year he tore the ACL in the other knee. Talk about bad luck. I believe I now see at least one of these reports weekend, especially now with football season upon us.

It’s strange how one never pays attention to certain things until they affect him or her personally. I’m sure Lance Armstrong never really thought about cancer until the disease almost ended his life. Now it is his life! He founded Livestrong and the Lance Armstrong Foundation
and advocates to empower cancer survivors to live life on their own terms and to raise awareness and funds for the fight against cancer.

You also see this happening with other celebrities who fight for causes when their families or they fall victim to a disease or illness. However, because of this, those mere mortals, who are in similar situations benefit from this “celebrity exposure” as more light is shown on a particular disease and potential funding, research and medical advances/treatments could follow.

I am convinced that if big-time athletes who make big-time money and provide big-time entertainment would not be victims of ACL injuries, the advancement in ACL surgery that has taken place in the last 10 years would never have happened.

So thank you to all you athletes and celebrities for putting the spotlight on all the injuries and diseases you may have endured. The rest of us may have benefited.

P.S. I am now 16 weeks post surgery. I have ditched the exercise bike at the gym and am using the treadmill and elliptical. I still experience pain in the back of my leg when I sit (especially in the car) and stiffness/tiredness after the rehab exercises and walking. I go to Dr. K for another follow up on September 24. I am hoping I get the go ahead to start running.

It’s Not Even Close to Over

Now that I’m finally walking almost normally and have been given the okay to go to the gym and start using some of the equipment, the real work begins. Enough of those elementary heel slides, leg raises, quad contractions, etc. Now I get to move on to squats, lunges, leg extensions, hip curls, leg presses and more. My knee needs to be better than it was before the injury to prevent injury to the other knee and to prevent arthritis and degeneration down the road.

Before the injury, I exercised almost every day averaging between 30 minutes to 1 hour. After the injury, I did the rehab every day and after surgery I did exercises 3 times a day. The problem is while these rehab exercises have been and will be difficult and tedious; they do not contribute to any type of weight loss regime. So, in addition to doing the rehab exercises, I’ll also need to do some type of aerobic exercise to maintain my weight – not to mention the few pounds I’ve added during rehab. Up until now, that has been months and months on the stationery bike after my rehab exercises. Slowly, I will move to the elliptical, treadmill and finally running and biking. But in the good old days, I would alternate between running/yoga/bike days with gym days. Now I will need to add the more time consuming rehab exercises to my running/yoga/bike days.

This bit of news, combined with the news that as women age, they need to exercise more and bump up their exercise routine (NBC 4 Report), I am wondering whether I want to devote all that time to this and whether I will have any time or energy to do other things (like going out to dinner or a cultural/art event, meeting up with friends and so on) after I undertake my rehab/maintaining weight daily regimen. I need a bag of chips and chocolate.

Good News from the Doc

My 3-month post surgery follow up was today and Dr. K. gave me some encouraging news. He said the knee looks good and that I can stop going to PT in September and start using the equipment at the gym as well as the elliptical/stair master and treadmill. I’ll still need to do rehab daily but I can finally start to bid farewell to the stationary bike that greets me each day when I walk in the door as it sits in my hallway as there is no other place to put it. Soon, it will be on the curbside awaiting its new owner or bulk trash.

I’ll start to go back to the gym next week and start off on the stairmaster and maybe a little on the treadmill. I’ll then do some leg extensions, use the leg press and the other piece of equipment where you lie on your stomach, put the weights on top of your calves and lift. And, I’ll finally get back to working my upper body other than using “heavy hands” at home. The last time I did all of this was May 22 – right before surgery.


He also said I can take my mountain bike for a spin when I go to PA next month. That ride is going to feel so good. And…he said he’ll probably (I want to run on the beach September 26 when I go) give me to go ahead next time he sees me (9/24) to do just about anything – including skiing. I said no to that activity and he said you got to still live your life. He mentioned something about an 8% chance of tearing the ACL in the left knee. That percentage is not worth the risk to me. I just don’t ever want to go through this again.

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