of teacher's day and knee

teacher's day has come and gone.
it was a very relaxing one where only less than a quarter of students in school turned up. there was no teaching whatsoever and all teachers just chilled out in the classes and staff room. they should have given us a holiday instead.
the attendance is getting less and less year after year. it is as if the students have it drilled in their minds that teacher's day is a day which has nothing to do with them and hence, what is the point of coming on that day.
yup, i actually had a kid who told me that vis-a-vis. he said, 'it is your teacher's day, what does that have to do with me?' yeah, coming from a 16-year-old prefect. and you would think that prefects are the role models in school.

anyway, there was the routined assembly, singing of this year's theme song, oath taking ceremony and a few performances from kids. lastly, a lunch in the canteen sealed the day.

i got 4 presents this year.....a very good haul hehehe.....but don't compare mine to all those primary school counterparts please. they get truck loads of pressies compared to us.
if you cannot make out the gifts above, well, they are handmade paper flowers, a scarf, candle and mcdonalds hello kitty. want to guess which is my favourite??

well, i also had a treat from a few kids in ipoh the day before- star trek movie, mcdonalds for dinner and baskin robbins ice-cream for dessert. that was wonderful. and star trek was awesome! heck, the star paper's review even gave it full marks! the cast was really great as in the space fight scenes too. well, i am a big star trek fan, so i can be bias.  i was so awed to see the enterprise again and again on the screen and everytime it appeared, my heart was like swelling with pride. it was like my baby is flying and exploring. hahahahaha.....

ok...one more with teacher's day.

we each got a polo-shirt and they call it our sports day shirt. do you think i will wear that on sports day? haha....for your information, dad is seen going out of the house with the shirt on his back today ;) i guess that answers the question. the purple is kinda too dark right? many say it is quite ugly. well, you and i know that i won't be seen in that shirt for sure.

the day after teacher's day, i had taken a leave and finally went for a consultation regarding my knee which was long overdue. the pain in the knee was bearable, but it made me stop my running and all vigorous activities to do with legs. the injury was a result of a bad landing when i jumped over a cone and the impact hit the knee when i landed on my heel. it just got worse these few weeks and i felt a pinch and exhaustion in my knee which affected my calf and these few days, even my hamstring felt tight.

i have even stopped bending down for ping pong. so the bearable pain does not look serious to others but i know that if i don't get it fixed, the effect is going to be long-term and worse. all those tales of ppl getting knee replacement scare me and i don't want to end up being one of them like in 20 years time. i also want to continue running, jogging, hopping and playing games.....so i made that phone call and made my appointment at kuala lumpur sports medicine centre.

the initial plan was to just see an orthopaedic but  when dad mentioned that his friend goes to klsmc, i decided to go to that place instead since it focuses more on sports injury. i know the bill is going to be exorbitant already before i went, so i guess i was prepared for the final amount.

no one encouraged me to go to government's hospital, even my own colleagues.  one just told me to forget about gov hospital as the process is going to be long before i get to see an ortho.

so i reached klsmc at 10.30a.m. and i only left at 5p.m.! what a long long day. the waiting was not very very long to see the doctors actually. initially, my slot was at 2.45p.m. for that particular knee specialist, but the receptionist called two days before to tell me to come in the morning for my scans first since it was my first visit there.

i had 90 minutes break for lunch which i spent  in the italian restaurant on the ground floor of wisma perintis- nerofico. eating alone was all right. i had my cousin and siblings chatting with me on whatsapp and a novel i had brought along.

my lambshank. i am not a fan of mash potatoes due to my worry of carb intake, but man, the mash was good, and i almost finished all. haha.....i have a tendency to leave my food unfinished. anyway, i was full already.
saw many patrons ordering pizza, but it would be too big for me to finish on my own.

ok...so what is wrong with my knee???

*photo from www.phillyburbs.com

the above is the mri scan machine where i put my left knee in. the scan took about 30 minutes. this is where the bulk of the bill comes from. rm1100 for the scan...i think that is the standard price for an mri. oh, my insurance agent came and took my original receipts, i am hoping for a reimbursement from my health card policy. my agent said that was the price so well, at least i know i am not dupped.

my knee x-ray. check the bottom pic, the knee cap. it is slightly tight and i have to do proper massages on the knee cap to loosen it. yeah, they taught me how to do it and it is an awe how much your knee cap can actually move.

the mri scan managed to show what is actually wrong with my knee. i have a condition called synovial plica. the synovial tissue is located in the inner side of the knee and mine is injured. see where the blue line is pointed in the film? that is the knee cap bone and it has slight aggravation due to the plica injury i sustained. that is why my knee hurts.

and of course when they tell me to bend my knee and hold their palms on my knee, they can feel the popping and creaking in the knee. you can even hear the sound clearly when i do my squats on the floor. it is the roughening of the cartilage tissue there that makes the grind.

hmm...i feel so old when i think of my knee. ppl usually lose cartilage tissue due to ageing and now i am already experiencing it. but i know mine happens because of sports. all those years of running, jumping and bending expose the knees to injury and exhaust the tissue there. so i guess for active ppl out there, do take your supplements. prevention is better than cure.

if i don't do anything to the plica, it might get bigger and rougher and when i bend my knee or impact is put there, the bones will grind....and i think you know how uncomfortable it will be then.

so in the end, an injection is recommended to improve the joint fluid quality. but before i went for the injection....i got massages on the knee cap and was taught the exercises i can do at home to strengthen the knee by a friendly therapist while lying on bed. knee locking is the key-word and while doing the exercises, i noticed how much weaker my left knee was because i had been adjusting my body weight to rest on the right due to the injury. the right knee had no problem locking and was not shaking, but when i did it with the left knee, oh how i shook.

after the session on the bed, i was brought to the gym area where they showed me exercises which would strengthen my whole leg muscles and which would help with my plantar faciitis as well.

oh, how i love the gym there. as i told them i am not going to head to the gym when i get home, they taught me exercises which will need minimal gym equipment. i can always improvise when i get home. i must be disciplined to do them i guess. even the right knee is making popping sounds now as i bend it. huhuhuhu.

so after all the exercises which really pull those targeted area muscles, it was time to ice the knee and get ready for the injection. aaaa......time to rest.

my injection which covers a course of 2 jabs over 2 weeks costs me rm900. sob sob.  it is hyalgan which is supposed to restore the joint fluid and acts like a lubricant and a shock absorber. it also activates the tissue repair processes in join cartilage, as mentioned in the brochure i received.

so i have to make another visit for a jab 2 weeks later and they have also slotted in another session of physio before the jab.

the puncture under the plaster. luckily my knee was all numb by the ice pack when they made the injection, so there was a very slight pain only. it caused no discomfort or whatsoever and i just walked as usual once i got off the bed.

my total bill in the sports centre came up to 2480 including x-ray, mri, injections, consultationf fee, and physio session. my sis told me to take it as life investment and i won't feel the pinch. well, i only want to be able to get active again and do my sports. at the moment, the only activity i can do is brisk walk and of course swim. 

the bill does not include the medicine from the pharmacy on the ground floor. anti-inflammation and gastric prevention from the anti-inflammation pills.

so that was the end of my day in kl. what a long long one.

now it is just rest, do the prescribed exercises, and apply ice-pack if the knee is sore due to too much walking at work. the rest part is the scary one. how much weight will i put if i don't jog? does that mean i have to reduce my food intake to avoid gaining weight? i am already eating very little nowadays.

aiyoh, don't want to think about that first. now, the immediate task is to finish marking all exam papers. luckily it is the exam period now, so i can sit most of the time in the classes....but the stairs in school are unavoidable of course.

to a non-related mater- free gift from la mer for mother's day. they only sent one card for this redemption so i could only redeem one. luckily someone from tm went to kl that weekend and helped me get it. or else it would have gone to waste since the redemption period was only on mother's day weekend.