The Exposé of a First Time Gimp

The Exposé of a First Time Gimp

A Prayer Request

July 2018

Hello my dear supporters and whoever else reads these. This update is going to be a little bit unique, which will fit my current mindset I suppose.

July so far has been a tricky month for me, full of eventfulness and stagnation. In short I am not sure I have ever felt more like an indoor cat that has to use its imagination to feel like each day isn’t spent becoming one day older. To clarify I am currently in the middle of a three week medical house arrest because a week and a half ago I strained my left Lateral Collateral Ligament (better known as LCL).

It happened during one of my Monday night soccer matches that I mentioned in my previous update. I was running, I tried to turn to my right, and when I planted my foot I heard a crack and felt the lower part of my leg go in the opposite direction that I intended. I fell to the ground in significant pain and a yell.

My friend/coworker/teammate Addy took me to hospital and sat through my snarky deflectionary remarks and anxiety over my unshaven legs. The doctor poked and prodded my knee he got me straighten it with a bit of resistance from both my knee and I, and in the end determined that it was too swollen for an MRI and the best I could do was go home and rest. Addy lent me her aunt’s crutches and took me home. Naively I hoped that it would be fine, even while sitting in a wheelchair in a hospital in zone 10.

Friday rolled around and I still couldn’t put weight on my knee. I decided it was time for a specialist, or as my roommate calls him the “gross foot man” due to a rather graphic poster in his waiting room. After more poking and prodding from this new doctor he determined that it was probably the LCL, but the time had come for an MRI. Making a Saturday excursion out of it, three of my friends and I went to a different hospital for X Rays and my first ever MRI. After a couple hours of burnt coffee, ham sandwiches, and theological debates I was ushered into the MRI room. As I laid down they put my knee in a plastic tube and slid me into the MRI chamber. Staring at the celling with oversized headphones on I prayed that my LCL wasn’t torn and that I wouldn’t twitch my leg distorting the images and forcing a round two.

Monday, with results in hand, I want back to gross foot man to finally learn my fate. After anxiously watching him analyze my MRI results for what felt like an eternity, but was probably around 7 minutes, the good news came. No surgery. No flight back home for months of recuperation. My LCL wasn’t torn it was just badly strained and surrounded by inflamed muscles. Flooded with relief his next statement gave me pause. Two more weeks away from the office with the main goal being to rest. This meant THREE weeks in total confined to my apartment.

This is the mindset that I am writing to you from. I was already feeling restless and stuck in the city before I hurt my knee. Now I am downright escapist. The work I can do away from the office is limited and not enough to fill the extra time in my three room purgatory. My days revolve around pills, creams, and applying heat to the knee. Our roof, though it takes some effort to get to, has become my fresh air escape reminding me that there is a world beyond these walls.

I am sorry for how much grumbling came out in these paragraphs. I think I have found this exercise of writing more therapeutic than perhaps I should have. Or maybe I am just hungry. All in all I am so grateful that my LCL is not torn and that the doctor thinks that I should be at 90% in a week and a half. I am grateful that I am getting better on crutches and that I have a team that cares enough about me to bring me bags of groceries. I am leaning into the knowledge that God can use this time spent hopping between my bead and the couch for his good. I am trying to stay positive and learn new things via YouTube tutorials and articles (if anyone has thoughts on a good intro DSLR let me know!).

So if it wasn’t already obvious here comes the prayer request:

• Prayer for healing and that the strength would come back into my knee. And that I really will be at 90% in a week and a half and will be able to walk on it soon.
• Prayer for wisdom for the doctor that I am seeing and that he has come to the right prognosis. Or at least for peace for my skeptical mind that he has.
• Prayer for my time in recovery. That it will seem productive and life giving when I look back on it. And that I won’t be ashamed to ask for help.
• And lastly, prayer for what God has planned for me next. That whatever it may be I can walk into it with the confidence that God is holding my hand on the path he has laid before me.

Thank you for reading, for praying, and for giving me a place to vent.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

2 Corinthians 12:9