Here we go again, just when I thought my body was holding together nicely, bang another setback. Who am I kidding, I have been tempting fate for the past three years with my right knee. I have known it’s getting worn out and will someday need replacing but I have chosen to keep active and get strong and use my knee rather than let it “Rust Out”. That’s what athlete’s do right? They push through their pain, injuries and when they get knocked down they get it fixed and get right back on that horse and go for another ride.

Why do we do it is the question I have been asking myself lately. First of all PAIN SUCKS nobody likes pain and really, I mean really, NOBODY else cares how much you lift or how many records you break, hold or have. Who am I trying to impress, myself? This is a topic for great debate and I for one know about setbacks and injuries, trust me I have been there, done that and have the records to prove it. But AGAIN, WHO ELSE CARES?

Sunday after my awesome training session for the Arnold’s deadlift expo my knee started to swell and by the late afternoon I could not bend my knee. I got out the ice and put my knee up, put a knee sleeve on and took some Advil. RICE is the answer to what ails you, or so I thought. Monday woke up could not walk down the stairs. I was off work and had plans to go to London to babysit my Granddaughter and I wasn’t going to miss this time that I would never get back. I made sure I was ok to drive and headed down the highway.

Still no pain relief and still a swollen knee from Sunday so fast forward to today, I got in to see my family Dr. she ordered an X-ray, urgent MRI and Ultrasound. This can’t be good I think to myself but I need answers and I need them quick. I am 8.5 weeks out from the biggest competition ever. I can’t train right now anyway, I can’t even hardly walk so regardless of how long the wait is for these results, I’m at a standstill in my training, yet again. Funny though, all I can think of is damn it at least I can still bench.

We all know our bodies better than any Doctor and I have had a sore knee many times in my life, this time is different. I have a bad gut instinct this time, just like when I tore my rotator cuff. I’m not going to jump to any conclusion whether or not to withdraw from the  competition YET.

What I can tell you is I am going to be taking some serious time to think about WHY I do this thing called “Powerlifting”. Why do I push my body beyond limits imaginable and why can’t I just settle to be ordinary. I am a Grandma for heaven’s sake, I want to be able to crawl on the floor and play with my grandbabies, I don’t want to be a feeble crippled up lady who looks like she is 70 when I’m only 55 years young (In two weeks, aging myself right now). On Monday my son says Mom, you look like a “Pirate” the way you are walking. I keep getting the lectures from my kids to stop lifting so heavy. I am just a competitive person I guess but there has to be that fine line in life where you just have to sit back, evaluate and really see what’s more important.

So, stay tuned in my never ending, continuing saga of medical tests, waiting on results and what’s next!

#injuriessuck #teamelitefts #driven #retirealready