Monday update: mom departure and knee

I decided to take leave on Monday as I wanted to spend the last morning at home with my mom who was leaving in the afternoon, or to catch the girls when they fall apart when grandma leaves. Grandma has been their best companion for the last couple of months, even years as both spent the first few years of their lives with grandma, from day 1. I know it’s a privilege to have her with us and now she’s leaving and I am not sure when we will see her again. When we lived in Asia, it’s easy to go to visit her or have her come over. Now 30 hrs apart it is way more challenging! Yet, the idea of not seeing her for years is unbearable. I guess I need to plan a trip to China next year.

I took advantage of being at home to take Cookie to vet. I am very happy with the new vet we found 5 min away from home. she’s patient, she speaks Spanish, she gave great advice of preparing for the new kitten arrival, and she told us that Cookie didn’t have a good diet. Duh…. I feel dumb to realize that. I take care of my family by providing them with real food, why it took me so long to look at the ingredients list of cookie’s food?! Well… right after we finished with our vet, I went to buy new real food for Cookie, who seems to like. We also realized that Cookie lost weight since we moved. I guess the stress of moving to a new place is shared for all family members.

I managed to see the PT in the afternoon. I went to it with open mind, ready to do whatever I had to do to be pain free, even it means taking a break from running. My knee pain was substantially less than previous two days, so I was optimistic. Indeed, it was not bad at all. He examined me and concluded that I didn’t have patella tendonitis, which is what my coach suspected given the symptoms. It’s a mild muscle pull and requires ice, rest, and a lot of strengthening exercise for my glute. We went through a series of exercises filming me doing them while he talked over, so I can remember them (brilliant!), and told me to do two more times this week, and we re-assess next week. He said I should be able to run again by Friday if the pain completely goes away, testing with an exercise that triggered some pain (single leg Y drawing). This wake up call is positive as it reminds me to REALLY stick to strength training while ramping up with marathon training. I am grateful for having access to the PT who trains olympic athletes in Brazil. He’s excellent!

Most importantly, I won’t be needing a wheelchair traveling to LA! Two more days of work and we head over to LA! super excited.