a diagnosis.

so as i have mentioned before, i have had knee issues for the past few months. the swelling and pain was not a result of an injury, or an accident, but something that just started out of the blue back in may. with the timing of me moving back to the united states, and waiting for insurance to kick in, it was hard for me to go to the doctors to truly figure out what was wrong with my knee. by the advice of a doctor i visited in japan, i have not exercised in since the pain started. needless to say, i am going stir crazy, and have possibly gotten too lazy for my own liking.

in preparation of seeing the orthopedist, i went to my family doctor who ran a few blood tests- primarily looking for rheumatoid arthritis which runs in my family. turns out, i had lyme disease. for those of you who don't know what lyme disease is, it is a bacterial infection that is spread through the bite of a tick.

i bet you are in awe as i am. i have never even heard of a tick in japan, or lyme disease for that matter.  i never had any of the early symptoms, nor have i found a tick on my body. i have no idea when i was infected, but am glad that it was discovered now. lyme disease can be quite nasty and turns out, isn't the easiest thing to diagnose as it has such an array of symptoms. my symptom [swollen joints] is actually one that occurs months after exposure.

though i am glad that it was diagnosed prior to any irreparable damages [it can do nasty things to the joints, heart and nervous system], taking antibiotics is not the way i wanted to spend the last month of my summer vacation. the medicine makes me sensitive to the sun (and heat) and also does not react well to alcohol.  talk about a detox.  i suppose i cannot complain.

to see what damage has been done to my knee, i finally went and got an MRI yesterday. i will be going to the orthopedist to read the results in the next few weeks. hopefully it isn't anything too serious.

in the meantime, i did finally get approved for exercise, but i have to wear a knee brace.  super excited. first stop, yoga!


j