Day 2-In which I am a cliche.

I'm sitting in bed right now with heating pad on my neck and an ice pack on my knee.  My neck has been screwed up for about a week, a leftover from sleeping in the camper while the in-laws were here (doubly not fair because I like sleeping in the camper!), and the knee...well, the knee...I'm so sick of my knee!  It's never really been good since the ACL tear.  It started getting a lot worse this fall, beginning to really kick in when I was cleaning out the Albany house, leading me to start bracing it again, and even resorting to crutches a couple of times.  Between that and weddings, my knee definitely had some recuperating to do here, and it has somewhat.  I still have "spells" where a trip through the mall about does me in.  I had another MRI done to see if there was something else wrong, and basically my cartilage is wearing away behind my kneecap and there's not a lot you can do about that.  For now I'm on arthritis medication for the inflammation.  So lets go top to bottom just to have it all on record.  This is what ails me...

1. Head-migraines, easily distracted, foggy, sleepy

2. Neck-hurts.  I'm thinking about finding a new chiropractor.  I saw a guy last year for about 6 months and felt much better.

3. Left shoulder-Joint pain.  It's not stiffness because I've been trying to work it out with yoga.  That does help a little, but mostly it feels sprained and I have poor range of motion.

4. Right elbow-Tennis elbow from shooting weddings.  Not much you can do about that one either other than rest it and let it heal.  Sound good until you realize that lifting a cup is the exact same motion that caused it and it's pretty impossible not to be picking things up constantly in your daily life!

5. Stomach-Intestinal issues, not specific, also newly lactose intolerant.  I'm a complete apple shape. 

6. Right hip-"hooper's hip" is a well-known malady in the hoopdance world.  I have it.  Basically, it's from overuse.  All of these things are signs of arthritis, and arthritis is basically the wearing down of cartilage from overuse.  Apparently, I'm getting good at that.

7. Left knee. - see above.

8. Both heels- I have plantar fascitis.  It can cause a lot of foot pain, but that is one thing that hasn't been hurting me for awhile.  Thank you Fit Flops! (squishiest most comfy shoe in all the land)

So that's it.  Those are the reasons I keep doing these challenges, because almost every single thing up there (quite likely everything) would improve immensely if I would lose weight.  For years, I would listen to my mom groan and moan, just getting up from the couch to walk down the hall to the bathroom.  It hurt her and she would bitch constantly about her knees hurting.  I can't count the number of times that I would think to myself that if she would just lose some damn weight, her knees wouldn't hurt her so bad.  So it looks like now it's time for karma to kick me in the ass and make me do something about it.  I won't go so far as to say I caused all of my problems up there.  I do think genetics plays a part in it (clearly, my family has week knees and are prone to arthritis), but the way I live my life certainly exacerbates the problems.  I'm hoping the change in diet will help with the inflammation, which has been slowing me down from doing a lot of activities.  Aside from headaches, until I hurt my knee two years ago, I've lived a basically pain-free existence.  I've never had a major injury and I've never broken a bone.  Now, pain has become a constant companion, and as tired as I was of hearing my mom bitch about her aches and pains, I'm even more tired of myself doing it.