Better day today

 I did hurt some getting up, and during the day. Midday I realized the pain was like a "burning" pain (like when I had bursitis in a hip) and I felt of the knee and compared it to my other knee - it felt warm.

Womp womp. Apparently the big buckley brace is causing inflammation. I know it helped at first but the neoprene is hot and my skin doesn't like it (and the velcro, oh the velcro is a pain in the neck. It sticks to everything). 

During lab this afternoon - this group is pretty independent - I was able to spend part of the time with the brace off and my leg propped up on a chair and it felt way better after that. And I don't feel wiped out this afternoon, despite setting up the systematic botany lab AFTER this lab

I did ask my MD/Ph.D colleague for advise on anti-inflammatories. He said NONE of them were good if you had a touchy stomach (and didn't like them for the cardiovascular side effects) but suggested voltaren gel.. Well, okay. I tried it once before and I thought it gave me hives, but it's cheap enough, I'll try it again (plan to apply it after dinner). He also suggested replacing the brace with a gentle compression sleeve - no buckles, no edges to press into the tender parts of my knee. So I went out to my pharmacy. They helped me find one - it's an extra large, so it's not *tight,* I didn't want something tight (my colleague told me not to get a tight one, that I just needed support, not compression, and also that I can even wear it later when I exercise - he said he wears one for playing volleyball). I trust him not just because he has an MD, but his wife went through something similar last year and he says that's what she did, and now she's better. 

So I may try just wearing that tomorrow, with the cane for balance. I may drag the big brace in my purse just in case, but if I can step down to a lighter brace I think that's a good sign? I hope? I can walk more comfortably in the new one than in the big one.

I am impatient. I wanted to be healed up by now. 

I also might just go to bed extra early and prop my leg up on a stack of pillows and read; I suspect that the inflammation from the brace/standing on a slightly injured knee is what's getting me down.

I do not feel so exhausted this evening but I know in a few minutes I should fix myself some dinner because I don't want to get to the point of being "too hungry." Apparently another thing is healing takes lots of energy? So maybe that's part of it. 

Also gonna keep icing periodically. Am slightly annoyed that the ice machine (for the labs) in my building is broken so I can't make an ice bag. I have two gelpacks but I like to have one in the freezer at home and one on my knee at home....I'll hunt around and see if I have a third and might take it over and see if I can stick it in a lab freezer and use it as needed. (I never apply it to bare skin, or for more than 20 minutes; you don't want frostbite)