In like a shot?

When I was about 12 years old, a boy told me that I have funny knees.  And of course, I believed him.  I didn't know why my knees were funny, but they had been declared so by an independent third party, so I just took it as gospel and believed it ever since.

So when I started having problems with my knees during the half-marathon training, I went to see a physical therapist.  I wondered whether he would finally affirm - but with medical certainty this time - that my knees were indeed funny.  He didn't.  In fact, he looked at ME funny when I suggested it.  We moved on.

Over the past few weeks, my knee has responded to treatment and then it hasn't.  Since I've been resting my knee from running activity, the swelling in my joints has calmed down somewhat, but it still hasn't gone away.  In fact, there are days when it actually hurts a bit just to stand still.  Apparently I am prone to hyper-extending my knee (where you stand up super straight and then you lock your knees back), so that is complicating things. I have to learn a new way of standing - not so rigid, but with a bit more rapper-slouch.  Can y'all dig it?

Plus I have to do a bunch of silly exercises, some with rubber tension bands and some without.  My hamstrings are not doing what they are supposed to do, so I've got to strengthen those, and my calf muscles are so tight they are not helping at all.  It seems my lower extremities are just a hot mess.

And the physical therapist yesterday suggested I get steroid injections in my knee - and that he could not administer them, but I would need to see an osteopath.  Do I really want to do this?  Is this what having a funny knee has come to?  I am not squeamish about injections but I am not sure that at my age, pumping goop into my joints is a really great idea.  I need to think about it.

I asked my phsyical therapist if I could just persuade him to come to my office and sit with me all day, cradling my knee in his hands so I wouldn't feel pain.  To my surprise, he said no.  Perhaps I should think of a package that provides toilet breaks and health insurance.  And a salary.  I missed out those parts in the earlier job offer.