Ecuador is kicking my ass

I have been spending sooo much time in the amazing park behind our house, that it was inevitable that I "take a spill" at some point. It was only a matter of time and yesterday was the day.  While out walking with my awesome walking partner, Kate, I decided to act like superwoman and scale a balance beam type structure we came across (these are randomly placed throughout the park). I was doing great until I decided to jump down off the end. It was only 3 feet!

Well, my knees hate it when I do these silly things and one of them immediately gave out. Unfortunately, it was my better knee (not the one whose ACL I've torn twice). After a big crunch and some writhing in pain, Kate and I slowly made our way back down the mountain towards home. Thankfully we came across a cab once we hit a road that I took while Kate walked Maia the rest of the way down (THANK YOU KATE!).

Once home, my knee started to swell as expected. I've done this to myself enough times to know that it is probably a bad sprain and there is not much they can do beyond surgery and I am not ready to take that on down here. So, I had resigned myself to just take it easy at home for a few days and try to tough it out. Spencer went to school today and inquired if there was a pair of crutches I could use for a few days.  To which they responded by sending the school doctor to me! My first house call!  Too bad doctors don't do this in America anymore.  She was great, checked me out, agreed with my diagnosis for the most part.  Gave me crutches and a compression bandage and a shot of anti inflammatory in the ass. Then said she'll be back tomorrow to see how the swelling is doing before deciding if I need an x-ray.

It's feeling better already so I have high hopes that I will be back hiking by the weekend. In the meantime, I am taking advantage of my lack of responsibilities and enjoying my couch. I'll keep you posted on what happens.  Fingers crossed I don't end up in some crazy Ecuadorian imaging center tomorrow.

Between this and the altitude sickness, Ecuador is kicking my ass!