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Date: March 17, 2004
I tried three times to keep going. I walked up the hills and coasted down.
I jettisoned all the pages out of my books that I had read, threw away my pillow
and some clothes, dumped some food, threw away my slingshot (I was too tired to
hunt rabbits at the end of a day), and I was still crippled by a burning pain
below the knee.
"Not again," I prayed to my guardian angles. "You can have the
hat and socks back." Three years ago a lady ran a stop sign and knocked me
off my bicycle onto my kneecap. This damaged the cartilage; it took two years
to recover. It nearly ruined my trip before I began.
I bicycled one-legged to the nearest bus stop and reluctantly returned to Christchurch
to prevent dying of boredom: I didn't have any books to read and only one channel
on the television in the camp kitchen. I was quickly thinking myself into oblivion.
I diagnosed myself on the Internet with Patellar tendinopathy (tendinitis),
possibly due to tearing the anterior cruciate ligament from surfing/drowning in
Sydney and medicated myself with a case of beer. I thought: perhaps, I can finish
the whole trip on one leg.
It would be easy to be morose and melodramatic at this point. Suffice to say
that life has put my trip in perspective: I am not ready to go home -- I will
finish!
I avoided the doctor for two weeks but finally crawled there on all fours like
God intended (my doctor said knees weren't fully evolved joints). The doctor agreed
with my diagnosis of Patellar tendinopathy and has given me a favorable prognosis.
He sent me to the physiotherapist and she performed all the same tests and told
me in medical terms that I have overdeveloped thighs and a flabby ass.
I told her that was impossible.
She poked me in the bum and said, "You see." She gave me some strengthening
and stretching exercises and ended my session by saying, "If it hurts too
much, don't ride so far the next day."
I'll try again tomorrow. I am getting pretty depressed watching all the bicycling
couples in the campground laughing, drinking wine, eating meat,
making too much noise in their tents at night and telling stories
of New Zealand (hiking, whale watching, swimming with dolphins,
soaking in the hot springs, spelunking). I have spent all my money
on doctors and another broken wheel. I'm not complaining: I have
it good and will be living on top of the world when I finish but
as of now -- c'est la vie.
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