Ahhh, Knee...

Stop what you're doing. Take a moment to look at your knees. Talk to them. Thank them for always being there for you, for making your leg bend and for taking all the stress you inflict on them day after day. Should you have the flexibility, kiss them. I mean it. Do it! Do it now before your knees organize a revolt against the rest of your body!

You never realize what you've got until its gone. Or until it's screaming in pain. Whichever comes first.

For somewhere between 2 to 3 weeks I've been having some pretty debilitating knee pain. I honestly don't know what happened to it; I woke up one morning and it was hurting. At first it was just some mild discomfort. But I've been limping around for almost 2 weeks now. At one point my knee hurt so bad I couldn't walk half a block without terminating whatever mission I was on.

Now, if I have my knee bent and I straighten it, it hurts. If I have it straight and i bend it, it hurts. I limp up and down the stairs (which is bad, because my bedroom is upstairs and food is downstairs. Go figure).

Saturday I was walking around without my brace on, and I was doing okay until I stepped off a step and felt something in my knee rip. It was absolutely excruciating.

I have a support brace that I wear, but I haven't decided if the tense inability to bend my knee is worth the ripping feeling I have when I don't wear it. I've popped Ibuprofen like no other but it doesn't do anything.

Guess it's time for a trip to the doctor, huh?

Only problem is, I don't have insurance. Yeah, sucks to be me right now.

Apparently my hypothesis that "it'll just go away in a few days" was wrong. I'm not gonna lie, I'm afraid to go to the ER. I HATE the ER. My aunt wants me to go to Cook County Hospital...and anyone who lives in Chicago knows that Cook County is where you go TO DIE. I don't want to go in with knee pain and come out with a brain tumor. But I refuse to go to Northwestern Memorial either, because last time I was there they charged me $500 to tell me I was perfectly fine.

*Quick background: I have asthma, and I was having a little trouble breathing so I took my inhaler. I didn't realize it had expired two years ago when I took it, though. My heart started racing, I couldn't breathe, my skin got clammy, I started shaking all over, I could barely walk, and I thought I was going to pass out. My aunt rushed me to Northwestern Memorial, where I sat in the emergency room for at least 2 hours thinking I was about to die. I mean, I seriously thought my life was over. After waiting for so long, they finally told me "oh, you're fine" and sent me on my way with a $500 doctor bill. Assholes.

Well, we'll see just how this turns out...