Oh Baby You... You Got What I Knee-d!

Wow, time is going by on fast forward - less than a week before I leave Seattle.  My last day at Boeing was Wednesday and my team gave me such a nice send off.  I will definitely miss them!

When you plan a big trip like this, certain things don’t always go the way you initially planned (surprise, surprise).  The two biggest issues I’ve been dealing with the last few weeks are as follows:

First issue: New Zealand is AGEIST! 

Who knew that at the ripe old age of 32 I would finally get a taste of ageism?  In order to get the visa I need for WWOOFing (World Wide Organization of Organic Farmers), I need a special visa – a “Work Holiday Visa” instead of a tourist visa.  Sounds simple enough, except these visas are only available to people between the ages of 18-30.  After multiple email chains between the New Zealand WWOOF crew and the New Zealand Immigration folks, I realized that I was S.O.L.  Their responses were basically, "Yes that is a problem.  No, you are not the only person who has asked this question.  Unfortunately there is no solution.  G'day!"  What was I going to do?  Go there illegally and hope to not get caught and deported?  Skip New Zealand altogether?  I thought about going to Australia instead but they have the same deal!

Thankfully the WWOOF people led me to BUNAC, a company operated out of the US and Canada that somehow is allocated a certain number of visas through the New Zealand government that work for people between the ages of 18-35 (still ageist, right?).  This magical visa is called an IEP visa.  I was overjoyed, maybe this will all work out after all!  There were a few stipulations… it was $692… and I HAD to leave in 2015… and they needed my passport for 6 weeks in order to process the visa.  Uh oh. 

After so much angst and worry, I found that the first two things were okay, but the third thing did not work for my current itinerary.  After talking with BUNAC representative in Chandler, AZ I agreed to stay in Wilmington, NC for six weeks (instead of three) before leaving for New Zealand.  I will FedEx my passport to Arizona as soon as I land in Boston at the end of October.  My New Zealand trip is slightly delayed, but still on and that’s what’s important!  Hooray, success!

Second issue (and the idea behind the blog post title): My knee(s) decided to revolt against me. 

Sometime during my college stay in Ann Arbor, over ten years ago, I twisted my knee (probably walking home from a party in heels… on the ice).  Since then, a few times a year, I get an annoying ache in my left knee, which would go away after a few weeks.  For whatever reason this time it just didn’t go away, and it got worse… a lot worse… and then it spread to my right knee. 

Honestly I was so busy getting ready and finishing up work, I put off worrying about the knee problem because historically it just went away.  But finally after three weeks, I realized this was a big problem.  How was I supposed to walk 330 miles across Spain with a backpack and two bad knees? 

I listened to the advice of friends who had similar injuries or worked in the medical field and looked online and heard the same things – wear a brace, ice it, and take anti-inflammatories.  So I did that and sometimes it helped, but then it just stopped helping.  CRAP. 

So today I went to my general physician (for a tetanus shot) and asked her.  She is seriously on God’s list of people going to heaven, I am not kidding.  This woman is the best doctor I have ever had, she listens, she cares, she finds solutions to problems.  (For those of you living in Seattle, her name is Dr. Britt Anderson out of Minor & James if you are looking for a doctor).  She got me in to take some X-rays and got me over to the Osteopathic Surgeons to review the X-rays and give me advice that very day.  Apparently I have tilted knee caps which cause cartilage bruising (or something like that).  My doctor listed a few options and I went for the cortisone shot (which started working very quickly and in about 20 minutes I felt 80% better, MIRACLE [angels singing and clapping joyfully].  I also received an array of strengthening exercises for my hips and quads which will help strengthen my knee.  By that point I wanted to name my unborn children after the PT, I was so happy. 

So another success, let’s just cross our fingers it lasts!

I guess lesson learned is to just keep at it - and most times there will be a solution out there.  I have to believe that, or I'll never get to Europe (and nothing is going to stop me from getting on that plane except an alien invasion or death).  There are other things that have waylaid me, but those two were game changers.  I still hope to leave on my road trip next week, although it will probably be Wednesday instead of Tuesday.

Stay tuned!

<3

Sarah