About three weeks ago my knee swelled up like a bowling ball and took on a mind of its own. One of pain, anger, needles, yellowy liquid, swelling, and refusal to bend or stretch (yeah I know that’s awkward- I mean if you can’t bend it or stretch it what can you do with it? EXACTLY!!). Welcome to my world.
 |
| The wizard demon makes his entrance. |
SO what did I do? Well, first, I did what every American would do. I walked on it for a week, trying to ignore the pain, and continued on with my daily life. Thinking “Eh, It’s twice the size it’s supposed to be, but I mean, that doesn’t mean it’s serious!”
 |
| I mean this guy looks harmless! |
 |
| And this little demon just wants to use my leg to go skiing... |
So it took not being able to bend it and swelling up so big that my thigh looked puny for me to go to the doctor. The first doctor said, go here it’ll be 3 weeks before a Traumotologo can see you. 3 weeks!?!?! Yeah that’s what I thought. So I went to a different doctor (thanks to Henry and Concha who went with me every time to this hospital). These doctors saw me immediately, assigned two metal European style crutches to my name and said don’t get off the couch for 8-10 days, ice it three to four times daily, take these two drugs, and elevate it. Or else.
 |
| Or else this little guy won't be nice little old man Duckington anymore... |
So, as you can imagine, this has been quite terrible for the little American girl in Spain. It’s hard enough to get an American to sit still, let alone an ambitions little girl who wants to experience Spain, learn about Huidobro and Nicanor Parra, and of course teach 800 Spanish kids how to rap in English (or speak at least. Lol).
As the week went by the demon inside my knee began to take over. The drugs helped the swelling go down and the doctor performed an exorcism to extract the little beast’s yellowy gooey soul from my knee.
 |
| UGH- wth do you think you're doing!?!? what is that- OH NO there goes part of my soul! ARGHHHH! |
This made him angry and he put more pressure on my knee, screaming and yelling to be let out. Started stabbing through the core of my knee and when he got really mad he started pushing at the sides to get out. Mainly punching and stabbing the outside of my knee.
 |
| That's it!! You gone done and PISSED ME OFF NOW!!! |
Luckily, with a lot of drugs, ice packs, help from Cari and Guillaume, encouragement from all my friends and family here and back home (seriously, everyone, you helped pull me through this one), the little guy stopped punching and stabbing me and I used my meditative powers to calm him down. So for now he’s subsided to being a not so aggressive genuinely nice fellow.
 |
| Must pretend to be happy... Do not want them to take more of my soul.... hey guys, you don't think they can tell this is a fake smile do you? |
So, I am still on crutches, while I slowly squeeze the little bastard out of my knee, slowly and secretively as to not aggravate him and so that he doesn’t know what is happening and won’t cause too much havack inside my poor little left knee. I mean we wouldn’t want him to turn into this demon again!
 |
| Angry SCREAM demon... what's your favorite scary movie? anyone... anyone... |
Until next time,
Raely Marie
PS. These are all photos of MY actual KNEE from the MRI they took last week. Yeah- talk about creepy. I prefer to keep my skin on too!
