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The Sound of Water

Posted by Lisa Eirene

Over the weekend I got to go on my annual weekend away with my bff Rachel! This is our third year doing it and I love it. It’s a fantastic way to stay in touch since we don’t live near each other (she’s in Seattle). We email and stuff but there is something special about being able to get away together for a weekend of girl talk, junk food and chick flicks!

This year we rented an airbnb in Gig Harbor, right on the water. On Friday I got up, took Logan to daycare and went swimming and then home to pack and hit the road.

The house we rented was near Sunrise Beach in Gig Harbor, which is kinda near Tacoma and Vashon Island, about an hour from Seattle. Two bedrooms (a queen and a king bed) and amazing views!

Of course the best part of the weekend is spending time with Rachel and catching up but I have to admit…a weekend of being able to sleep in without a toddler crawling into our bed for cuddles at 5am was REALLY nice 😀

The house we rented was SO nice and private and felt remote. We were right on the water and my bedroom upstairs had AMAZING views.

This is what I woke up to on Saturday morning:

Talk about stunning. What a way to wake up! And it was a king sized bed just for me. 😀

Friday we unpacked and then went into the downtown area to look around a bit, window shop and then got happy hour at Tides Tavern right on the water. I definitely recommend it! The food was fantastic. Good service, too.

We both got the happy hour Wedge Salad, which was the best Wedge salad I’ve ever had! And then split an order of clams and garlic herb bread.

We stopped at the store for a few essentials and then went back to the house for the night. We opened a bottle of wine, watched a chick flick, got caught up on stuff and then had a snack plate for dinner.

Saturday morning we had breakfast:

Lots of coffee and then I went for a run in the little downtown area. It was 50 degrees but not cold. It was SO nice to run after having like a month off. It felt GREAT and I was happy my cortisone shot had helped. And having carbs the day before made my run fantastic! I felt like my legs were flying!

I ran downtown and looked around a bit and took some photos. I found a little path near the water.

Then I ran on the boardwalk by the marina.

It was such a fabulous run!! I did just over two miles and then went back to the house to clean up.

I saw some deer on the way home. It was cool. We walked around downtown Gig Harbor and then had a late lunch at Anthony’s on the water. I had the Dungeness Crab and Shrimp toast. It had an artichoke and tomato tapenade on it, too. Then topped with melty cheese. It was SO delicious!

Back to the house for more movies, girl time and hanging out on the deck enjoying the sunshine. We chilled outside for a long time and even saw a few sea otters swimming by us.

Dinner was more snacks:

It was so much fun and just what I needed. I felt relaxed and recharged and happy.

Sunday I got to sleep in until 8:30. I missed the sunrise, but glad I saw it Saturday. We had breakfast and relaxed with our coffee before packing up. I hit the gym in Olympia on my way home. It was such a nice weekend but I was also glad to get home and hug my boys!

Knee

Posted by Lisa Eirene

I’ve been dealing with a knee issue since December. I had tendinitis in my right knee. I think it was from one of the knee machines at the gym (which I quit using). I was going to PT and haven’t been seeing any improvements. I saw Ortho in June and got an MRI, which of course was inconclusive.

The diagnosis is “mild chondromalacia of joint and quadriceps tendinitis”. But honestly my Ortho Doc is baffled.

I decided to spend the summer going to PT and trying to see what happens. There was a lot going on with moving, selling our house, etc. PT wasn’t really helping, though and a lot of the exercises I was trying to do was making it WORSE. It was SO frustrating! And my physical therapist was frustrated too!

I recently started doing acupuncture and was actually seeing some differences–which was weird because all the times I’ve ever tried acupuncture, I never really saw any results. But this time, it seemed to help. It gave me a few weeks of relief! Then my benefits ran out. My physical therapist plead my case to my doctor for a referral so I could keep going and that finally got approved! So in a few weeks I’ll go back to acupuncture and see if that helps.

Which brings me to this week. It’s been two weeks since I’ve been to acupuncture and this week my knee pain flared up again. I had a follow-up appointment with my Ortho doc Thursday and we chatted. He gave me two options–the cortisone shot and “dry needling“.

He said that the dry needling is different than acupuncture and can be more painful. He said he’d want me to take a few days off to rest after that but with the cortisone shot, I would be ok to go to work and move around and stuff (I just couldn’t work out for two days).

Since he’s not 100% sure on what my knee issue is because the MRI didn’t really show much, he said the cortisone shot was the best bet for now to see if it would just “reset” my body. Sometimes you need to reset the pain centers and then your body can heal. I had the same issue after my ankle surgery 15+ years ago and ended up getting a cortisone shot in my ankle (it was horribly painful!!!!) and then within a week my pain was gone and I had no more issues. I know some people need to have multiple injections, but I’m hoping I’m a one shot and done person. (Crossing fingers!)

So he thinks that I have fluid and inflammation in that area at the top of my kneecap (see picture above with the arrow). The pain is at the top of the kneecap, where it meets my quad. Stretching doesn’t help. Bending my knee hurts. Stairs hurt. It’s a very odd injury.

He sprayed my leg and knee with this stuff and then gave me the injection. Unlike with my ankle shot, it was one shot and it wasn’t painful at all. Then I went to work. I was stiff and a little sore but I was able to walk and didn’t feel miserable or anything.

It will take 7 days or so to see if the shot did anything. Right now it’s a guessing game. The naturopath doctor I saw suggested I try PRP therapy. I asked my Ortho Doc about it and he’s a HUGE fan. As a sports medicine doctor he thinks it’s a great thing and wishes that HMO’s would try it. It’s still controversial and they aren’t quite sure how or why it works for some people. But he raved about it and said if I could “afford it” (I can’t) I should try it. Time will tell. Right now I’m doing what insurance covers–the cortisone shot and acupuncture each week.