Saturday, August 19, 2006

Bad Things Happen When You Exercise

I neglected to mention that I did have a bit of exercise about a week ago. When my brother and his fam were visiting, we took them downtown to do a bit of sightseeing. We did not drive and instead walked and took the train around the city and that was more walking at one time than I've done in a while. Well, the next day, I began to notice a weird noise in my left knee when I would bend. Kind of a gross stretching noise...like tendons being pulled apart. It wasn't loud and didn't hurt, so I didn't worry. Unfortunately, my trip to the gym seems to have aggravated it a bit (not to mention that I did a deep bend a few times for my husband to hear it) and it's not only louder, but my knee is sore now too. I looked up the symptom on webMD and the possibilities were not fun to read. Hopefully, it's just a pulled muscle, or a pissed off muscle wondering why in the world I am attempting exercise after all this time. I don't blame it...the rest of my body was wondering too.

My son has acting class today and has to perform a convincing death in 60 seconds. He has chosen to die by poison and if he can keep from smiling, he is pretty good. I love to watch him succeed at it. It's great. While I was helping him, something happened that amazed me. I was giving him advice on his performance and he was listening to me. He wasn't cutting me off with, "I know, Mom. I know." I noticed this quickly and was almost stunned into silence. It was great to be able to help him with something that he was willing to listen and try. I think the class is helping him to be more open to suggestion and advice. When I pick him up from class, I sometimes get to watch his taped practices. Last time, they were practicing death scenarios and Bobby was in one by himself where he suddenly lost the feeling in his body and fell to the floor. After he had collapsed, the camera closed in on his face and he had a real look of fear and panic. It was too much for me to watch and to hear him calling for help from his mom and dad. I had to stop myself from crying...it felt so real.

When my daughter was about 2 years old, she was eating some bread and began to choke. Hubby was trying everything he had been trained to do in that situation, but she was still choking and began to flail. I was calling 911 and right when they picked up, her body went limp. By doing so, her throat relaxed enough for the food to come out since she was upside down. She began to breathe shallowly and we couldn't tell right away if she really was breathing. When we knew she was okay, the medics came and checked her out. She only had some petechiae around her eyes from the lack of oxygen. That was, without a doubt, the most terrifying moment of my life. I was praying and crying and wishing it was me and was willing to give up my own life without a second thought. I knew, right then, that the worst thing that could ever happen in my life is to lose one of my children or to see them suffer. I relived this when I was watching my son's performance. I may need to realize that I might not be able to watch him perform his own death. It might be too much to ask. But this also says a lot for his abilities...he sure had me convinced that he was dying. That's pretty good for such a little guy.

4 comments:

Something McSomethingkins said...

Sounds like you offset your meniscus. My knees always pop randomly when I walk. Sometimes my ankles do too.

Roberta said...

Ooh...I LOVE it when you talk medically!

Joe said...

I just burst out laughing at the comment you put on my blog about me hating the Red Sox! Thank you! You're too funny!

Andrea Frazer said...

Oh man, talk about getting choked up - between that actual choking episode with your daughter and then your son faking his death. Why can't they all stay small in our uterus?