Ribs of courage.

2004-05-27 12:00 p.m.

I went to kung fu class last night and watched. I�m not sure when I�ll be able to jump back into the m�l�e again. I�ve got an appointment with my doc on Tuesday. Hopefully I�ll have a better idea then. All I know is that sneezing and coughing are really bad ideas. Have you ever tried to sneeze without moving your chest? It makes you feel like your eyes are going to explode. Sifu told me I won the injury and bruise competition for Saturday. Ribs of courage. Ribs of pain.

I am so excited about the extended weekend. I don�t have a lot of plans. It looks like it�s going to rain most of the time which is good. That way I won�t feel guilty about sleeping, reading, writing and spending all of Monday watching the Law and Order marathon. I don�t need an excuse to be lazy but having one helps.

Fun with your HMO.

2004-05-26 10:35 a.m.

Ten fun things about going to the emergency room:

10. If you cry when they take blood you get a sticker.
9. Gurney races down the back hallway.
8. Asking directions to the morgue.
7. Picking up strangers in the waiting room.
6. Free pamphlets on high blood pressure and cholesterol.
5. Reading the March 2003 issue of Time magazine.
4. Getting felt up by complete strangers.
3. Great time to stock up on tongue depressors.
2. Latex gloves make fun party balloons.
1. Backless robe shows off new tattoo.

Kill Bill and some pictures.

2004-05-24 9:06 p.m.

I forgot to mention that on Sunday I went with my buddy Jillian to go see "Kill Bill Vol. 2." I really liked it. It's kind of funny, everyone I know who does martial arts liked Vol. 2 better than 1. I'm not sure which one I liked better. In Vol. 2 I enjoyed the background story as much as the action and fight scenes, although the coffin scene had me feeling way too claustrophobic.

Here's a few pictures from this Saturday:

Brook appears way too happy and it it looks like Shelley's flipping him off, but I think she's just grabbing for his shirt.

Here's my Sifu looking angry and fierce.

Here's a group picture taken at the end of the day. I'm the sweaty blonde kneeling in the front row. Tracy a la ChatteringMagpie is the babe with the baseball cap in the front row.

Oh, my ribs.

2004-05-24 9:47 a.m.

I went to an all day training session on Saturday. I had a really great time with the only exception of getting injured pretty bad early on. We broke up into random teams and did a drill where we lay on our backs side by side and the last person in line stands up and walks across everyone�s stomach then lays down at the end and the last person stands up and goes�on and on until we get to the end of the gym and back again. Well I�m on a team with three guys who are over 200 pounds. When they stepped on my stomach, it was fine. I�ve got really strong stomach muscles, there�s a layer of fat over them, but underneath I�m solid. Well one guy kept stepping on my ribs. I ended up in the emergency room at 9:00pm because I couldn�t breathe. My ribs are all bruised and the doctor is looking at my chart and says:

"Someone kicked you in the ribs during kung fu training?"
"No, someone stepped on my ribs."
"Why did they do that?"
"He was suppose to be stepping on my stomach."
"?!"
"It was a training exercise."
"Did he at least apologize?"
"Uh, no�people applauded and stuff, though."

The next doctor comes in and says. "So someone kicked you in the ribs during kung fu training?" Next time I�m just going to tell them I was in a bar fight and someone broke a chair on me. It will streamline the whole talking process.

So basically, they told me my ribs were probably contused and maybe cracked. They saw no reason to X-ray me because there�s no treatment for a broken rib and it was obvious that my lungs weren�t punctured. I was given lots of pills and told to eat ibuprofen around the clock and ice my riblets as often as possible.

Then they got all freaky because my pulse rate was 128 during the entire office visit. I told them it was probably because I had worked out all day, but they insisted that your pulse returns to normal within two hours of ceasing exercise. I had not idea what was up with my ticker, I didn�t even know it was going that fast. So I was like "So, I�m still burning fat, right? Cool!" They didn�t think it was cool and took more of my blood to check my thyroid again. I haven�t heard back from them which means my blood work was normal. I took my pulse later that night and it was 88 and by yesterday it was back to 76 which is pretty much normal for me. Don�t know what that was all about.

So my ribs still hurt and breathing is painful but I expect I�ll be back to normal in a week. I took pictures during some of the more physical parts of camp. I�ll post a few later this afternoon.

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