So I’ve been trying to work on lots of things at the moment strength, kata you name it… I didn’t really take the time to plan out anything… so actually what happened was a case of brute force and ignorance rather than intellectual training. All of this, along with some significant time pressures led to rushed training sessions and well… lots of bad habits, my biggest bad habit… not stretching.

Now, with my Irish background, unless something was literally hanging off  growing up there was no recourse to medical attention… the time I broke my arm was case and point. There I was unable, to move my elbow and in the most intense pain, which I was told was no excuse for not feeding our dogs, which was my daily task. 3 hours later, after much crying the parents started to take me seriously and when I was put in a huge cast in the Regional Hospital as it was known then, they almost believed me 🙂 I joke of course but you see what I mean…

So for the most part, I pretty much take a sarcastic view of pains and niggles,  as a result, when my knee was sore for like…over a week… I started to take it seriously. I am quite binary in these settings, I go from cold to absolutely roasting and with it, my conviction that I now have some sort of ultra serious terminal illness is somehow founded. Certainly I was not going to be able to do karate again… like ever.

My knee was very sore during a gasshuku in Germany, so much so that I came home convinced that I needed to find another sport. Not even a sport… I bought a jigsaw. I was now more than ever officially old.

It seemed a good idea not to run, which I suspected might have been the cause of the problem, I googled every single thing that could go wrong with a knee…  and I made excuses for not doing additional training. So much so that I stopped cycling… I cycle everywhere, but the cold weather was my friend and it was a welcome excuse. Phew, I could now take the train and try and walk out my injury. It didn’t help and the pain didn’t go away.

I had by now narrowed down my diagnosis to three possibilities…Bakers cyst, Meniscus tear and judging by my research, there was the slim chance of bone cancer. I hoped for Bakers cyst but my head said menicus tear. As the weeks went by the pain only just started to wain and professional attention became more of a reality. Training was sore and I was missing the thinking time I had from running.

So I did it… I made an appointment to see my physiotherapist. Forget the grip of a nigari game enthusiast, this girl, who is about half my size can make me levitate in pain with her ridiculously strong fingers, her elbows are another matter…

An hour of what can only be described as lovely massage interspersed with the most unlovely manipulation of my knee and hamstrings and she had a plan. Turns out, internet googling of symptoms is not to be advised. I now have a load of not very nice stretching exercises to do and I am in fear of my physio and her super strength  distal phalanges…

Good news, I am not badly injured just need to stretch more… a lot more. My physio also took a measurement of my flexibility so there is no hiding. She certainly laughed at me and my less than accurate self diagnosis. I won’t be googling physiological issues any time soon. Although a pain I had earlier today could be Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, whatever that is… 🙂