Medical Monday And I Win A Prize!

   Today was yet another Medical Monday in my life.
   It started more or less first thing with a visit to my physiotherapist, Alison, at CBI. She foam-rolled me, stretched my right quad til I thought it would pop off, and then spent some time massaging the part of my knee that connects with my IT (iliotibial) band. There seemed to be a little swelling there and she thought it might have been from the foam-rolling she's been doing on the IT band the past few weeks. After all this, a new exercise to do, an ultrasound treatment and then a session with the TENS machine.
   At the end of all this, the knee felt great! As a matter of fact, the knee feels better now than it has in months, pretty well since I originally injured it last April (seems so long ago now). She suggested that I try running on it for a short bit and so that became my plan for later on.
   Part of Medical Monday this week included a trip to the blood donor clinic later on in  the afternoon. It was a beautiful sunny day and I thought if I was headed to that end of town then I would stop in at the MEC store, drop off some used batteries from work, and see if there was anything I could spend a $15 gift card on. 

My newest pair of Injinjis!

   Now, I happened to have that $15 gift card as the result of being one of the winners of a draw which was sponsored by the Thames Valley Trail Association. The TVTA said it was going to take the names of all the people who completed the End-To-End trail hike in 2017 and put them in a draw for both an End-To-End badge and an MEC gift card. I had sort of forgotten about the draw but then, a couple of weeks ago, what shows up in my mail but a badge and a gift card! Awesome! I walked around the store a bit and then found a pair of Injinji socks that cost about $18. Perfect!
   From the MEC store, it was on to the blood donor clinic. Ran into a bit of a snag there. About a week ago I had a punch biopsy done on a lesion on the side of my face (hopefully this will not lead into a whole bunch of other Medical Monday posts) and I still had not received the results of this. Because I had not received the results, they would not let me make a donation. Bummer. They did, however, still let me partake of cookies and a Coke. Yay. 
   From there, back on home, where I made spaghetti sauce for dinner. It occurred to me that seeing as how I had not donated blood, this meant I could go and work out before dinner. I took Alison's advice and did a little bit of treadmill running, with no pain. I even did the leg machines, which I had put on hold weeks ago, with no pain! 
   Kinda hard to describe how good this felt! I have always enjoyed the way my body heals itself but after awhile, when you're MY age, you start to wonder if maybe some of your body parts have outlasted the warranty. I was worried about this with my knee but after today I am much encouraged!
   
   P.S. Injinji should hire me as an ambassador. Both Alison and the MEC cashier asked me about them today. I wear them to physio and gave them a glowing recommendation to Alison and then basically repeated myself at the MEC store. They are awesomesocks!!