Picture tour

Spent memorial day weekend with my dad and brother in Las Vegas. Won some money, but not as much as I lost :(

Poor penguins! Dallas?!?

The bus always has the right-of-way

My wife arranged the most wonderful date on Wednesday -- a two-hour sunset sail on the Schooner Adirondack down the Hudson to the Statue of Liberty. We sipped wine, ate chocolate-covered strawberries, snuggled under our blanket, and enjoyed the city views. Only when she tried to prevent me from singing "My Country tis of Thee" at the Statue of Liberty did things get tense...

Knee Update

The so-called "professionals" disagree with my MRI reading ... slightly. They're calling it a "high grade partial tear" of the ACL. I think I would rather it be a complete tear... this diagnosis puts me into something of a grey area to choose between surgical reconstruction and rehab without surgery. Given my age and activity level, surgery still seems like the most likely option.

So the next step is to have another examination by a doctor who specializes in ACLs. That will happen next Tuesday afternoon...

MRI

I injured my knee in a soccer game last Tuesday. I was running to get back on defense, I caught up to the guy with the ball, I made a big step to get in front of him and when I planted my right leg I felt it land... and then I felt my knee give. After a minute I was able to walk away, but I knew that there was definitely a problem.

So today I went to have an MRI of my knee taken. I have had four of five MRIs before, so I knew what to expect. But not long ago, I read an article about a guy who died getting an MRI and it has freaked me out ever since. In the story I read, someone had left a steel oxygen tank in the MRI room and when the machine was turned on, the powerful magnet attracted the tank and the patient was hit in the head. So today I was sure to take everything out of my pockets before climbing up onto the table. But as the table started to slide into the machine, I felt my waist being pulled upward! "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" She stopped the table. I lifted my shirt and saw my belt buckle (I never wear a belt which was why I forgot all about it) being pulled away from me. I took off the belt as I lay there and as I held the belt by the middle, the buckle was strongly pulled away from me pointing up at the machine! I pulled it away and gave it to the technician, who asked in way-too-surprised-a-manner "could you feel the magnet pulling it?" Really freaky. I didn't relax the whole time after that.

So I have my films and will deliver them to my doctor in the morning. But of course I can't wait to know the result so I found images of good knees and torn ACL knees on the web, and I've been comparing my films. I'm 99% sure that I have a torn ACL. There is clearly supposed to be a dark line (the cruciate ligament) connecting the two bones. My ligament is clearly not connecting as I see it. Any radiologists out there want to disagree? Please???