Knee and Scary Stuff

sigh....my knee is still not good. I went to physical therapy last week and they suggested icing which has helped a lot. I also went to take a MRI to see if there are damages that were missed by the X-ray. The images didn't show anything peculiar except for the amount of fat I have. The fat content is absolutely amazing and strange because I don't think my legs look fat and they feel firm which lead me to believe that they were full of muscles - lol how I was wrong! After gaining this knowledge, I realize that people who have bodies that are considered skinny but with no definition actually have tonnes of fat beneath their skin. And people who have bulging muscles that are not defined means that there are also tonnes of fat beneath their skin. But when you can see individual muscles, that's when fat is at the minimal. Today I saw such a person (I make it sound like I've seen a miracle haha)....I went up for a ride in the mountains, something I haven't done in a month! Because my knee is getting better in that cycling no longer aggravates it if I don't stand up to pedal. I left early at 8 am (early for me these days) to avoid the heat to climb the 2. But it was already so hot. It took me 55 min from the bottom of the 2 to reach the intersection station. When I got off from the saddle to rest, I noticed that it was wet! And the instant I stopped moving I could feel that I was bathed in my sweat. As well the ledge that I sat on got wet from the sweat in the chamois. Yep it was a hot day. I have to say that I'm in love with my new saddle, sure there is still pressure (the weight has to go somewhere) but there is absolutely no chafing - so awesome! Oh yes, as I was cycling, I was passed by this dude with long curly hair. I've seen him a few times before and I think he has to be one of the fastest cyclists out there in the mountains. Omg I could see the individual muscles so clearly. I now look at my legs and they have some definition but with a lot of fat to give them a soft and supple look....so sad :( Yet I'm amazed that with so much fat I'm still faster than everyone at RB except for the pack. When I started cycling I remember being passed by most people at RB and getting a kick out of passing others. Now passing others has become routine. I don't know if other cyclists kill themselves each time they go out cycling. Because each time I cycle, I give it my all. I could feel that my heart couldn't keep up. It always takes a good painful 15 min for me to win the fight against my lazy body to go at a speed my mind considers to be decent.

Ok onto some scary stuff. Last week I thought I contracted cancer. I pricked myself with a needle that had been used to prick the vein of a mouse containing human breast tumor. I don't even know how it could have happened, but the needle just came flying into my finger. Blood instantly started to pool. I was freaked out. I squeezed as much blood out as I could, washed and wiped the wound with alcohol. As a scientist, I know that cancer cells are not contagious because your bodies immune system would recognize them as foreign and attack them till kingdom come. That's if there were even any cancer cells on the needle. However, I'm super crazy about health so I admitted myself to urgent care. After waiting for 1 hour I was seen by a nurse, not even a doctor. The nurse hasn't dealt with this situation before and had to call a doctor. So I waited and waited. I was so cold (the room must have been at at most 20 oC) and starving and my knee was hurting and I thought that I should probably just move on to the next life. Cycling is the one thing that I know I really want in my life and if my knee doesn't get better, that will be the end of that. And now with a looming prospect of cancer, my future looks bleak. After waiting for a total of 2.5 hours and putting my immune system in jeopardy from the cold and hunger (I need it to be strong to fight off any tumor cells), I gave up waiting and asked the nurse to call me back on what the doctor has to say. Conclusion, there is a loophole in the system in that people do not know how to deal with this. Mostly because no one hardly reports these incidents and also because they rarely cause anything...phew