Last Thursday I was feeling really good. My knees weren't hurting and I was feeling a lot stronger. It was raining outside and Kaylee just went down for a nap, so I decided to take a quick run around the block. Ahhh it felt sooo good. I love rain and I love running. I was so happy and felt really good. I then went to physical therapy later that day and was still feeling pretty good. Well that night was HORRIBLE. My knees were a 9/10 in pain. They got all swollen and nothing I did helped them. After awhile I finally fell asleep.
So the biggest problem with my knees are what is called Patellar tendonitis. It is also called "jumpers knee". This problem tends to occur in "tall skinny girls" or those that play volleyball, tennis, or runners. Since the problem occurred right after high school I assume my problem was the tennis I played in high school. And since I didn't realize that I inflammed the tendon it never got better. IT ALL FINALLY MAKES SENSE!!!!
Needless to say a simple thing as running around the block caused my patellar tendon to inflame and my physical therapist told me that "running is nowhere in my near future". He told me that this is an overuse problem so rest is the best way to treat it. I will start to feel better but if I start up exercising too early than it will just go back to what it used to be and recovery will take that much longer. He also gave me some knee straps to wear instead of taping them every visit. They help keep the pressure off of my tendon. Does this all make sense?

ANATOMY REVIEW
Patella (kneecap) is a moveable bone on the front of the knee. This bone is wrapped inside a tendon that connects the quads to the tibia (lower leg bone). Without going into too much detail there are essentially two tendons; one at the top of the knee cap and one underneath it. Tightening the quads puts pressure on the tendons which then help straighten the knee.

So the biggest problems for me causing the Patellar Tendonitis
- I initially caused it in high school playing on the tennis team and since I didn't realize that was the problem I never rested my tendon or knew what to strengthen. Which is why it would hurt off and on and never got better
- The alignment above and below my knee cap (patella) are misaligned so it puts even more pressure on the tendon surrounding the knee cap. Once my knees are well rested then I will strengthen the cartilage and tendons to help with the alignment
- Making the alignment worse my right leg is smaller than the left. I have orthotics to help but I wasn't very good at wearing them which then made the alignment in my knee even worse.
- Due to the misalignment I have what is called Patella Alta (my knee cap is above where it is supposed to be)

Ta da! I know this is probably really boring to some but it is sooooo exciting for me. The physical therapist doesn't know how long my recovery is going to take but at least we are using the word "recovery"!!! I am just soo happy!!

Last weekend we had our annual Day Reunion. BJ talked to his mom as he does every other Sunday and she had shown interest in coming to the reunion but didn't think she could take time off of work. Since it was Labor day weekend and BJ knew she didn't have work on Friday or Monday he called up his brother JC and after talking they decided to buy his mom an airplane ticket to Salt Lake City so she could go to the reunion with us. Boy was she surprised! From what I understand she hasn't seen some of these cousins for 7 + years. The Reunion was held up American Fork Canyon. It was from Friday-Monday labor day weekend. Since most people usually come Saturday and Sunday; we decided to head up Saturday afternoon and planned to camp till Sunday. BJ's brother JC already had plans for Saturday night so he just met us up there Sunday morning.

SATURDAY

we got there and set up our tents and went around to visit people. BJ really enjoyed watching his mom interact with her family that she hasn't seen for a long time. We then played B-I-N-G-O and BJ won a $5 gift certificate to McDonalds!! He was pretty proud of himself and...so was I :) After cleaning up we joined BJ's mom (Sherryl) in a game of sequence where we all took turns winning. We all pulled out our snacks and ate and ate and ATE until we were so sick to our stomachs and then played a game got Blot or something like that. You look at an ink blot and then try to find figures, animals, objects...out of the blot and then make a list of what you see and try to convince others to see what you see. Needless to say we were all pretty tired and came up with some very interesting things to say the least. ha ha We then headed off to bed in which Kaylee slept pretty good but woke up a few times. Poor BJ was exhausted so he slept in.

Sherryl and her siblings L-R (Sherryl, Paul, James, Becky, Cliff, Andrea)

SUNDAY

Choir practice started at around 930am with my favorite song 'Come thou Fount". Kaylee loves to hear Daddy (BJ) sing so he held her while we practiced-it was cute.

We then had "Church"- just without the sacrament. It was a testimony meeting and a very powerful one at that. I felt the spirit really strong and bore my testimony as well as BJ's mom. It was a neat experience.

Thanks for coming to visit Grandma Tenney and for all your help with the fence and peaches. We hope you can come back to visit soon!

Physical Therapy has been going pretty good. The PT doesn't think surgery will help me because of how unstable I am with my loose ligaments so the best thing I can do right now is physical therapy. I really like this PT, he seems to know what he is talking about. He has been doing this for a long time and has a lot of good experience. Having my knees taped and wearing good shoes with my inserts help significantly. I just ran around the block and my knees didn't blow up like two balloons so that is good :) It doesn't feel like I am doing much at physical therapy but it apparently is helping. I get on the total gym for 10 minutes, bike for 15 minutes, the PT stretches me (ouch!) and then they ice and stem my knees. I am hoping as I stregthen my cartilage that the PT will then push me even harder. I know that running is the hardest on your knees but my dream is to be able to run at least a 6k. I can deal with the pain after the run...I just want to be able to DO it. I am so determined to give it my all. I just hope the PT is willing to push me.