200708 - Getting worse

[El Gordo]

No, not being negative. This isn't an 'attitude' this time.

I woke up on Tuesday morning with a 4 mile run pencilled in on my schedule. Began to clamber out of bed, and was immediately aware of a sharp pain in my left knee. So bad that I couldn't bend it.

Eventually I eased my way onto my feet and limped towards the stairs. Getting down them was quite a struggle. I couldn't put any weight at all on my left knee, so had to sort of hop down, one step at a time.

Fast forward 3 days, to today. The simple truth is that it's still really bad. I can now get up and down the stairs much more easily, but I think this is more to do with having developed an effective technique, rather than an improvement in the underlying problem.

I'm at a loss to know what's happened here. I've never had trouble with knees. Calf muscles, yep, and both big toes have tormented me from time to time. But the bigger joints -- ankles and knees -- have been kind to me. So I can't understand what's going on. Last week, I did step into a hole while out with the running club, but apart from some temporary discomfort with my left ankle, there seemed to be no lasting problem, and certainly nothing knee-ational.

Looking at it now, there's no swelling, no discolouration, just a sharp pain when I press the knee-cap, or when I bend the joint more than a few inches.

Hmmm. No running, needless to say, and just about zero chance of doing the Burnham Beeches Half on Sunday.

I'm puzzled rather than gloomy about it.

Further bulletins to follow, you'll be excited to hear....