PSoTD

When was the last time you heard anything about it?

Maryland has a program. Does your state?

Of course, I somehow missed all the hubbub about duct tape being a cure for warts.

Maybe that's really the public discussion we should be seeing at this point. Not about her comment, but why she is not in some sort of treatment. Was this a cry for help?

Last Sunday, while playing basketball, my knee started hurting - a lot. I had hurt it a few weeks prior in basketball, but nothing major, but on Sunday, on a play where I started to charge forward to collect a loose ball, but after three steps realized that I would not make it and tried to backpeddle instead to play defense, it just went. I was able to get up, and actually continued to play for a while, but a few hours later, it really started to hurt, to swell up, and to stiffen.

I looked through Google for my symptoms and found what I think is the likely cause: a Medial Collateral Ligament sprain. (And hopefully not a tear)

That night, it was somewhat painful to walk on. After talking with my wife, we decided that if it wasn't better by Tuesday, then perhaps it would be something different than an MCL sprain, and I should see a doctor. In the meantime, I tried to apply some of the treatment described here.

Monday, I was still limping, and trying to keep weight of my leg.

But guess what? By Tuesday it felt better (but not yet fine), although I still didn't play hoops on Wednesday. I'm 48, it takes me longer now to heal, and there's no real reason to push it. It still hurts, but it is getting better. But as happy as I am about my body healing, I'm just as happy that I had the Internet available to me to investigate my situation and to come to an expectation of what would happen. 20 years ago I wouldn't have had these resources available to me, and on the following Monday I may have found myself going to the doctor for examination, wondering what was going on with my "wrenched knee".

And that's not to say that I might not end up going to get my knee examined - it depends on progress. The Internet hasn't replaced going to see a medical professional, but it has allowed me to become much more informed on my prospects before I make a decision to go see one.

Here's one of those little asides when you learn you're older than you think... I remember when the general term for unspecified knee injuries was "wrenched knee". You twisted your knee oddly, it was injured, it was "wrenched". You don't hear that term much any more. And Google is indicative of that - there's only slightly more than 3000 references for the term in their search engine. I find that somewhat shocking. I thought it was still a common term. Meanwhile, there are 243,000 results for "medial collateral ligament", and that's just one area for knee injury.

In the area of personal health, we are all becoming more specific. And the Web is a key part of that process.