Favourite films by Icelandic Directors, #65

[peteryoung]

My right knee is displaying very little evidence of having been Intelligently Designed. After putting in a days work on my feet for seven hours with no problems, I get to the hotel room, get connected to the Interwebthing and sit down, and half an hour later when I get up to go to bed I can't straighten the joint. My current suspicion is it's a meniscal tear, and it's started swelling slightly again. It's a little better this morning and I can walk just about OK, but today will be spent doing absolutely nothing active (and besides it's too cold out there to be doing anything as completely irrational as going outdoors).

Five more illogical things about this body (possible meme):
1. I have an irrational fear of the sound of people eating, and simply can't sit still if I can hear someone eating behind me.
2. I'm left-handed but do several things right-handed, like clean my teeth.
3. I'm double-jointed in my right thumb but not my left.
4. I can't eat too much citrus fruit, because the acid seems to go straight through my liver to my joints.
5. I have a very thin layer of skin on the heel of my right foot which becomes very white, hard and ridged when wet. It's not a problem but no specialist I've spoken to (three so far) has ever seen this before.

Comments

[eleyan.livejournal.com]

have you ever considered you might be an alien?
Seriously, though, it wasn't until I went low-carb and joined a support group where people relate their experiences of this that I began to appreciate the bewildering variations in the ways a bunch of people who presumably evolved the same way, differ in their reactions to things.
Hope the knee gets better. Maybe a timer reminding you to get up and move about every five minutes or so might help? I had to try and to this when I shagged the top part of my back.

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

have you ever considered you might be an alien?

Strangely enough I'm in room 2001, which I might take as another sign. It's also right next to this floor's ice machine, which is handy for some necessary ice treatment. I'm just a bit worried with all the extra burden now being placed on my left knee that it might come out in sympathy.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

I can't eat too much citrus fruit, because the acid seems to go straight through my liver to my joints.

Have you been looked at for gout?

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

The doctor I saw just after Xmas suspected this, but after the blood test he discounted it as a reason for the knee problem because the uric acid level wasn't high enough. I really don't have the kind of long-term diet that gives a person gout, but when I've previously had joint inflammation I've managed to work out by a process of deduction over the years that it's caused by something like too much orange or grapefruit juice, and not in any quantities that woulkd seem excessive. Apple juice I have no problem with.

[drpete.livejournal.com]

Could be simply meniscal wear and tear rather than specifically a tear since you do spend a lot of time on your feet. It might also be biomechanical, again because you spend a lot of time standing. Have a chat to your GP, and perhaps a podiatrist who will be able to prescribe some insoles to ensure that as you stand, the biomenchanics of forces through your knees are correct.

I can wibble at you about joint fluid dynamics and biomechanics mext time I see you in the pub. [g]

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

Consider me reassured. Many thanks mate.

[rwl.livejournal.com]

I'm lefted-handed too, and also double-jointed in my thumbs (both of them) -- nwl was both fascinated and a bit appalled when I demonstrated this to her. Maybe left-handedness has other inherent traits -- I wonder how else I might be different...

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

Haven't four out of the last five US presidents been left handed?

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I used to have terrible anxiety about people coughing in restaurants, in case they were choking. (This was entirely because of the movie of Christine.)

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you are an alien to me. Not one of us sensibly designed humans :-p