London Leftovers (Last and Longest)

One more. These pictures, not fitting into any real overarching category, cover most of our other activities. In the interest of getting to make another bulleted list, though, they’ve been jammed into little sub-categories all their own!

• Harry Potter – Though we didn’t make it out to Oxford or the craggy grounds of Scotland (the two sites where much of movie-Hogwarts was filmed), we did come across a few minor movie/story locations. In the upper left picture is the Australia House (if you’re a part of the British Commonwealth, you get a “House”, not an embassy), used for Gringots Wizarding Bank in the movies. Next is the Millennium Bridge with St. Paul’s Cathedral in the background, where the Death Eaters were very rude to some muggles in the 5th movie. Lower left is The Market Porter Pub on the edge of Borough Market (see the food post), the exterior of which was used for the Leaky Cauldron in Prizoner of Azkaban. Finally, Khristy pushes her trolley through Platform 9 ¾. Unfortunately, platforms 9-11 were under some serious construction during our visit, so 9 ¾ has been temporarily relocated to its less natural location seen below. Plenty of people still find it and line up for their photo ops, though.

• “The City”: technically, “London” really just refers to a very small square near the Thames. When you go to Westminster, Kinsington, Notting Hill, etc…you’re really going to different cities/towns. As the colloquial “London” has come to refer to the collective Greater London Area, “The City” is used when referring to the original small square. Our very first activity upon arrival was a self-guided walking tour through The City, which takes you through the legal district, narrow alleyways off of Fleet Street, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the origins of the England’s financial center, and eventually to London Bridge. In the first picture are the Royal Courts of Justice. It looks like something from Disney World, but as Britain's highest civil court it plays host to some serious suits. Like Dan Brown's plagiarism case and Paul McCartney's divorce hearings. Next is the original Twining’s Tea Shop, a tiny tea store built in the beginnings of England's tea craze (and still family run!). Lower left is the financial district, with its interesting contrast of old and new. The older buildings in the center and on the left are the London Exchange and the Royal Bank of England, with modern banking skyscrapers behind them. Finally, a shot of Tower Bridge as taken from London Bridge. Interestingly, London Bridge itself is pretty bland. It used to be lined with shops and homes (think Ponte Vecchio in Florence), but has been torn down and rebuilt several times since those glory days. Most recently, it was sold to a rich American who had it shipped brick by brick to Arizona, then rebuilt it there. Seriously.

• Westminster – on the second day, we did a walking tour through Westminster, London’s political capital (and hot wedding spot for princes and rich brunettes). Starting near Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, we went down Whitehall street, which passes the Ministry of Defense, Downing Street, and the Horse Guards before spilling into Trafalgar Square. Below are Big Ben/Parliament, a parade of horses pre-changing (and solo soldier post-change), then Khristy by the Abbey courtyard.

• Tower of London/Tower Bridge – Embarrassingly, I didn’t know what the Tower of London really was before our trip. I sort of thought it was related/connected to Big Ben. Woops. It was actually the monarch’s residence and military complex during London’s medieval heyday. More importantly, you might remember it as the castle that Robin Hood attacks near the end of the Disney movie. Now, you can tour it and many of its medieval relics (knights’ armor, knights’ weapons, and, pictured below, a giant ledger book that kept inventory of something that I definitely didn't forget. definitely). After the Tower, we crossed the iconic Tower Bridge and headed West along the Thames, stopping to take Khristy’s picture with the bridge and the HMS Belfast. [first picture from Google]

• Buckingham Palace, St. James’ Park - Given my royal roots and relatives, I expected a warm welcome and some special treatment when visiting Buckingham Palace. The guards only seemed annoyed and confused though—I think because my nerves ruined the “Royal accent” with which I explained things. Even lovelier than the palace were the surrounding parks--pictured below are Khristy in St. James Park (London Eye in the distant background), and a rainy Hyde Park picture from the following day.

• Notting Hill/Portobello Road Market – Finally, I insisted we do some shopping. The scenery here was quaint and the market lively, but it was really crowded, making it hard to absorb or enjoy the experience. I’ve been trying to think of crowds that compare (Asheville Mall on Black Friday? Trader Joe’s during Peak Hours?), but even those don’t quite match in density. I kept thinking of the scene in Notting Hill (I watched 3 weeks’ worth of British movies and shows before the trip) where Hugh Grant strolls through the market content and unimpeded. Pfft. (Also, why did his character like Julia Roberts so much? She wasn’t that nice)

The end! Wish you all could have been there. Even if royalty voices might have led to a few “I don’t know those crazy people” moments.

In lieu of all being there, maybe we should have tea time over the holidays. Here is Stephen Colbert learning how to have a proper tea (whole thing is funny, but tea doesn’t start until 5:10. Also, don’t feel too bad for Hugo, in later segments they start getting along better): http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/380598/april-06-2011/my-fair-colbert---hugo-vickers

London: Museums

Once you torture your wallet getting to London, it’s actually pretty cheap to keep yourself entertained. Nearly all of the city’s biggest museums are free, allowing you to walk in and out at your leisure. They charge for audio tours, but we found some free ones in itunes that you can download and play on your ipod. Earbuds in tow, we made it to four of the museums...

(Disclaimer: the elevated-vantage-point picture for the British Museum and the external shots of the Tate & National Gallery are from Google. None of ours quite captured these--probably because I complained about taking too many pictures)

• British Museum – a giant venue full of archaeological artifacts from the Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, and Roman Empires. Most notable are the Rosetta Stone and a collection of marble sculptures that used to adorn the Parthenon. There’s some controversy here because Britain basically stole everything in the building. Greece, for example, would really like the rest of its Parthenon back. For a while, the British argued that Greece didn’t have any museum space in which to properly show these sculptures. Over the past few years, Greece actually built such a space, so…Britain changed its argument. Now, they claim that these artifacts are so connected to the history of Western architecture and art that, really, they belong to all of us now.

• Tate Modern – a former power plant, this really cool building was emptied out and converted into a place where you can debate about what counts as art and what doesn’t. Walking through all the exhibitions, I kept thinking of an essay that reviewed a “modern” novel, saying something along the lines of “it should never take more effort to understand a piece than it does to make it”. There were a few things here that violated this rule. Some exhibits were really cool, though.

• National Gallery – Britain’s biggest collection of paintings, they’ve got over 2,300 works covering a span of about 800 years. This is also a popular place for afternoon tea, with a tea room/café that overlooks Trafalgar Square. Pictured is our "cream tea": lighter (and $15 cheaper per person) than a full afternoon tea, it comes with just tea, a scone, jam, and clotted cream. The scone in the picture looks a bit ho-hum, but was amazingly delicious with the cream & jam. Possibly my favorite thing we ate all week.

• Victoria and Albert Museum – technically a museum of “decorative arts and design”, this seems to be where you store anything really old but not so ancient/historic that it belongs in the British Museum. Victorian dresses, Islamic rugs, Asian swords, and more! One highlight here was listening to a pair of little girls walk around the museum, reminding me of home movies of Amy and Emily. The older would lead the way, narrating her findings, “I found….some people lying down!” (effigy casts of Henry II and family), “I found…a castle!” (casts of gothic spires), etc., followed by the younger echoing her enthusiasm: “some people!”, “castle!”. In the center of the museum is also a really pretty courtyard and fountain, very popular among London’s still-in-diapers crowd. Pictured below are the courtyard and Leonardo da Vinci's notebook, followed by replicas of Medieval tunics and a knight's gauntlet that you could try on.

The Bends

24 days down! You’ve all been very nice to check in every so often and ask for updates, so you will probably find several parts of this post redundant. Hopefully there will be a little new info for everyone, though.

The biggest change since 2 weeks ago (can’t believe it’s been 2 weeks since the last post…it feels much more recent) has been starting physical therapy, which I’m actually really enjoying. My orthopedist recommended 2 places—a small therapy studio in Carrboro or a new UNC therapy center in Chapel Hill…I looked at the websites for both, and was ready to call the UNC site (they had lots of pictures of fancy new therapy equipment) until I saw the google reviews for Carrboro’s Balance Physical Therapy. Everyone raved and raved about Balance’s staff and therapy programs—reviews so laudatory that I started to suspect they were written by the therapists themselves to try and get more business. I put that cynicism aside and made an appointment (they are also a closer drive and have more PHDs on staff), which I think was a good choice. It’s a very small facility, but everyone is really friendly and knows their stuff. It also manages to incorporate just the right amount of Carrboro-hippy vibe—free hot tea is served in the waiting area, and one therapist brings in her two golden retrievers who go around and make sure everyone is doing ok.

I work mainly with Chad, a therapist who grew up in/near Boston (we complain together about how much it costs to fly there these days) and got into physical therapy after suffering a few sports injuries of his own. The main goals at this stage are to get my range-of-motion (knee bending) and quad strength back. Most of my trips at this point, then, go roughly as follows…

• 15 minutes of massaging the knee and leg, getting my patella comfortable and kneading my IT Bands (these run along the side of the thigh and help with stabilization—they often tighten up after ACL surgery, doing extra stabilization work since the ACL isn’t contributing yet). This part’s pretty great.
• 15 minutes of knee bending. I lay flat on a soft table, my leg up on the therapist’s shoulder. He’ll push the knee back and lower his shoulder, bending my leg a little farther each time. As we get to my flexibility limit, this starts to really hurt (I try to remember to take a pain pill before each appointment), so I’m not particularly fond of this part. This is when I want golden retriever time.
• 15 minutes of quad firing. I sit up some, legs still flat in front of me, and just flex my left quad as hard as I can, taking breaks as it gets tired. We’ll also do single-leg-raises, lifting my leg up while keeping it as straight as I can. If I can keep it completely straight (i.e., the knee doesn’t start coming up before the foot…aka no ”extension lag”), this is done without the brace on.
• 15 minutes of exercise bike—not as advanced as it sounds. I don’t actually peddle away, but rather start with my left leg extended, then peddle as far as I can forward, then back down, then as far as I can backward. Repeat for a while. It’s another way to push my bending limits, letting my right leg boss my left leg around to try and get its flexibility back.
• Wrap up with new walking instructions and brief practice. For example, my first trip I was told to start letting my left foot hit the ground as I walked, putting as much weight on it as I could safely bear. Next time we unlocked the brace for bending-while-walking, mimicking a normal gait but keeping the crutches for most of the weight-bearing. Now I’m up to unlocked brace and one crutch, though I have to move very slowly and deliberately.

In between appointments I’ll do as much as I can on my own (“biking” at the apartment fitness center or RTI gym, leg lifts on the couch/floor, knee bends, etc). So far I feel I’ve kept with it fairly well—between my Monday and Wednesday appointments this week I gained 20 degrees of bending range, which impressed/surprised the therapist. And just a few hours ago I actually managed to peddle all the way around on the exercise bike!—which means in the coming days I’ll probably be able to use one like a normal person, building a little muscle back and getting some much-missed cardio activity.

So things are going pretty well. There are still a few lingering negatives. I’m still struggling to get comfortable in bed, resulting in many less-than-satisfactory nights of sleep, but it’s better than it used to be. I’m also a bit saddened by the amount of atrophy I’ve already suffered. This week’s lovely legs picture shows the contrast in calves:

You’ll notice the knee is still pretty swollen—apparently it will stay that way until I’m walking without crutches and without a limp (a few weeks away?). All in all, though, I’m making a lot of progress and am pretty close to ditching the crutches and brace. It won’t be long before I can walk on a treadmill and use an elliptical machine, and if I keep up this pace I should be able to bike in Hilton Head without any problems. Just in case I can’t, I’ve gone ahead and ordered one of these for Meredith to tow me around:

Getting ACL-limated

Day 12 of my ACL-rehab donkey ride. It’s been comforting that every day is consistently a little better than the day before—at any given point I can remind myself “It’s only going to get easier”.

The big milestones (ditching the crutches around 4 weeks, ditching the brace around 6 weeks, and running around 3 months) are still fairly far off, but I hit several minor, intermediate goals this week, including:

• Sunday night – tinkered with my golf-club-bungee-cord contraption and figured out how to sit down and stand up on my own. This was crucial—I might not have let Khristy or Daddy leave, otherwise.
• Tuesday – showered! I’m allowed to take off my brace and shower now (the only time it’s ok to take it off), which is very nice. Though it takes a long long time to get in there safely and I have to be careful around the stitches (lovely stitches picture below), it feels very refreshing.
• One of the days (they all blend together when you spend each of them in the exact same spot and posture) – figured out how to get in the car! Another liberating step. I’ve driven to the mail boxes a couple times, which will hopefully be good practice for Monday, when I have to drive myself to the doctor. I might see if I can go to Trader Joe’s tomorrow to practice a farther trip (…and get some bananas).
• Saturday – while laying down, I lifted my leg an inch off the pillows, using only my quad muscles! This is one of the big therapy exercises for the first month. I’m not exactly clear on the biological reasons for why this is so difficult/impossible right now, as they didn’t actually do anything to my quad, but it certainly takes a lot of straining to try and lift it.

Pretty good, right? Here’s the stitches picture I referenced earlier—be sure and look at it when you’re getting ready to eat a big meal!

There are still some issues, though. I think they would be best presented in another group of bullets…

• Though I’m allowed to take off the brace and bandaging to shower, that also means I’m in charge of putting it (and the ice-pump-wrap) back on. I do not like this responsibility, because (a) it’s quite difficult to reach the straps and bandaging close to my ankle, and (b) I’m never sure if I put them on 100% correctly, which leaves me perpetually wondering if my amateur bandaging is at all responsible for any subsequent pain/swelling. Speaking of swelling…
• Swelling. I’m sure everything was pretty swollen last week, but I couldn’t see it under the layers and layers of wrapping. Now that some of the bandaging has been removed I’m constantly noticing how swollen my ankle is (very swollen). I almost e-mailed my doctor (would have been the 3^rd time since my last appointment), but some internet research tells me the ankle swelling is pretty standard. The swelling has also subsided ever so slightly the past couple days, helping to quell my paranoia for the time being.
• Some sleeping struggles the past couple days. I’ve had a hard time getting comfortable in bed, resulting in a few straight nights of 20-minutes-asleep, 40-minutes-awake cycles. I don’t really mind the pain/discomfort when I’m out on the couch distracting myself with games and movies, but it becomes frustrating at night when it hurts just enough to wake you up, but not so much that I can wake up and play QRank (which, you might have noticed, I have been housing this week). Being stuck in one position becomes aggravating, too—I’d eat three onions if it meant I could turn on my side and bend my knees in bed. Speaking of bending…
• No bending. I had thought that the point of my brace was to make sure I didn’t bend my leg, as this might interfere with the way the ACL and hamstring healed. It turns out that, even without the brace, my leg still knows the rules. I got doc approval to carefully experiment with bending…one remarkably short experiment session later, I realized leg-bending is pretty much impossible at this point. Like the quad lifting discussed in the Progress section, I’m not sure what recovery-biology makes this so difficult, but it’s another thing to look forward to improving upon in physical therapy.

Still reading? Good attention span! Skimmed everything and just happened upon this sentence? You are my least favorite family member (not really—you must be busy. And I haven’t updated my rankings in a while).

That’s how things stand with week 3 about to start, sure to bring its own milestones—stitches come out, physical therapy starts, I visit my office, and more!

I’d like to thank everyone once again for all your help last weekend, though. It was really, really touching how kind and eager-to-help everyone was. You all tie for first place in the leg-lift-and-hold standings. Thank you all so much.

Labels Testing

Thought I'd try and contribute by doing the leg work of Emily's "tagging" idea. I've added a "gadget" to the right that should let us look at all the posts by a specific person, a close analog to everyone having their own "section" or "page". Whenever you write a post, if you add your name (pen name, signature, whatever you choose) to the "Labels for this post" section, then it will automatically categorize the post by author. I'm trying it with an "Andy" label to see if it shows up. Stay tuned.