Here is what Lisa said in her comment:

“My doctor says the clot, based on ultraound/doppler tests, began behind my knee. Apparently, the lower in the leg the clot, the less serious/smaller it is and the more likely it is to either be absorbed by the veins or become a DTV (deep vein thrombosis) instead of a Pulmonary Embolism. Above the calf is considered dangerous. Normally the act of getting up to pee throughout the day during immobilization is enough to prevent a clot. I must have had the perfect storm of injury location and severity. The scary thing is that it was 4 months after the injury when the clot broke free and traveled to my lungs. Please encourage everyone on this blog to discuss DVT and PE with their orthopedist. Leg cramps and shortness of breath might not seem serious, but they can be signs of something deadly. I would even encourage folks who have a dislocation to carry a card in their wallet stating that fact. If I had lost consciousness and an ambulance had been called, it might have taken longer to get to the root of the problem without my being able to provide a history.”

There you have it. If you are fairly new in your recovery of a dislocated knee, please be aware of the complications that could arise. Watch out for the signs and symptoms and talk to your doctor.

I would also like to thank Lisa who took the time to share her story so that others could learn from it.

Cheers,
Jonesy

I will soon be putting a post together on how to create your own ringtones for your iPhone, and the AoA Audio Extractor will be featured in it. So if you want to learn how to create ringtones from your favourite movie or tv show, stay tuned.

Wow, it has been a while since I have been off the radar with my blog posts. While I have been keeping up with my two most popular post: one dealing with USB drives and Windows Vista, and the other dealing with dislocated patella’s, I haven’t been adding any new postings. =( I think my main problem is that I am always thinking I have to deliver some ground breaking post that is going to knock the socks off of people; instead of just posting something that I feel people may be interested in. So, with that in mind, I am going to try and do just that. Let’s see how that goes.

Sure, anyone probably could train a monkey to push a button, but is it really that simple, that easy?  There has to be more to it.

First of all, if pushing the button serves a purpose, such as the monkey performing a specific job that requires the button to be pushed, it’s pushing is related to a cause/effect situation.  Let’s say that the purpose of the button being pushed is to open a particular vent to air out a specific area, but this is not just a random purpose because there are definite times when the button needs to be pushed.  So for us to get the monkey to know when to push the button, we need to train the monkey to respond to a particular stimuli that it recognizes as indicating that the button NEEDS to be pushed (i.e. “When the green light comes on, push the button.”); I’m sure a monkey could handle that kind of training (any animal behavioural scientists out there please correct me if I am wrong).

Would that be all there is to it though? I don’t think so. What if our monkey gets distracted easily? What if he chooses to not push the button? It is here where I feel the importance of consequence or reward comes in; the monkey needs to be trained either through reprisal for not pushing the green button when the green light comes on, or reward for pushing the green button only when the green light comes on. Either way, the monkey needs to recognize the importance of fulfilling the task to its specifics, anything else is not acceptable.

And that is that, I never really went much farther in my thought process regarding this matter. Nothing groundbreaking, nothing revolutionary, but I do think there is more to training a monkey to push a button than there seems to be.

Just thinking out loud again.

And so, my long and complicated original idea for a post was replaced by a moment of clarity which bore fruit to Color Scheming For Designers. The post is a discussion of the importance of colour in web design, as well as a list of my favourite colour resource websites.

I welcome everyone to head on over to http://styl.eti.me and read not only my post but all the other great ones that are there as well.

Take care,
Jonesy

Just thinking out loud. =)

The other day as I was going over one of these sites it got me thinking (I know I know, dangerous territory that thinking stuff), I have submitted to a few of them here and there but have yet to have any of my work showcased. The rejection comes hard at first, but as soon as I punch my ego in the throat and push it out the window I am able to deal with it in a more effective and pleasant manner. A reaction based on ego would be “oh my god, those jerks, why won’t they showcase my work, is it that bad, I thought it was good, would I have clients if my stuff wasn’t good, just because mine doesn’t look like everybody else’s should I be penalized and ostracized like that, this is horrible, maybe I shouldn’t be a web designer, what am I going to do, those jerks, geez” and so on and so on. Ego is wonderful isn’t it? Yikes.

However, with ego out of the picture the rejection allows me to contemplate and truly think about why am I submitting to these sites. Of course recogniziton for a job well done is important, but is it the be all and end all? I don’t think so. During a projects development it is the clients opinion that matters the most. You are designing a product for them based on their specifications and outlook. Creative freedom is peppered throughout the design process but ultimately, in the end, it is the client that is the driving force since they are the ones paying for the design. One then puts their work forward to one of these design gallery websites in the hopes of having their work recognized for its design beauty and brilliance, which in turn helps promote the designers work and hopefully bring in more clients; etc., etc., etc.

But if my work is never showcased does that mean my designs are bad? That my work is horrible and should be removed from the internet before it infects the entire “series of tubes” with its yucky bad-design cooties? Some may agrue “yes jonesy it does, and you should stop, stop right now.” Others may argue “stay the course jonesy, you’re doing super.” And Me? Well, I try to just keep on trucking. I love web design, and I love looking at well designed websites in the hopes that I can achieve even half the level of brilliance that a lot of designers out there have. But I don’t let the hope turn into obsession, or unrealisitic expectation. I am responsible for the level of effort that I put into my pursuits, and I am responsible for its results. I am a web designer because it is what I love to do, and that is one thing I truly believe we should all be striving for, doing something that we love doing, and if you are getting paid to do it….even better.

It’s kind of like another post I was contemplating putting together: If nobody is reading my blog, should I still be blogging?   For me, the short sharp answer is a whole-hearted YES!  The long profound answer I’ll leave for another post.

cheers,

Jonesy

1. It is essential that you feel comfortable with the environment, the staff and, most important of all, the physiotherapist. If you don’t feel comfortable with any of those I would say move on until you do.
2. Try and find a physiotherapist that has worked with an injury like yours, this helps to ensure that he/she knows how to treat your specific injury.
3. Make sure the equipment looks well maintained and up to date. If there are machines that look like something Houdini escaped from I would say get out as fast as you can.
4. The physiotherapy clinic needs to be convenient and easy for you to travel to. The reason for this is that there will we days when you are finished your physio session and you are going to be exhausted and in some serious discomfort. The last thing you want is a drastically long trek back home.

I realize the list is quite small, but to me those were the key elements for my recovery. If you have any other tips you would like to add please let me know.

The first week of physio was really tough. My quadriceps had completely disappeared. I had no muscle, it was weird to look at and depressing to see how quickly muscle can deteriorate (the doctor and physiotherapist both said that after 3 days of inactivity your muscles will start to deteriorate, your body determines that it isn’t essential so it breaks it down ). But my quad wasn’t the focus; it was my knee, and getting its full range of motion back. At the beginning of the week I could barely bend my knee at all, but after a grueling week of physio my range started improving. Aside from the exercises, I also had the electrodes hooked up to the knee; this would work the muscle around the knee. I also had an ultrasound type thing that was rubbed around the knee and surrounding area to break up the scar tissue that had formed on the tendons. What happened in my situation was that I had stretched my tendon to the point of just about breaking it apart, and because of that trauma there was a lot of micro fibrous tears throughout the tendon; and that is what the physiotherapist needed to repair as well.

This aspect of my recovery stayed consistent throughout. The other areas came once he felt my range of motion was good, as well as my balance and step.

From there I moved into doing the bicycle as well as the leg press, and the kick-back/kick-forward machine. The leg press wasn’t too bad, it was low weight with increasing repetitions (over time the weight was increased as well). Once again it is amazing how weak my leg had become because of this whole situation. However, my progress was good and I kept on trucking. The kick forwards were really really bad though, and painful too.

The bicycle, well, at the beginning it was DEADLY! At first I couldn’t do a complete rotation, it hurt way too much. Being the guy that I am though, I thought “let’s just give er a bit more shall we?” and by accident I made a full rotation; dear sweet-lord did I pay for it, it hurt something awful and the physiotherapist gave me some harsh words as well. It was a stupid move on my part and I never tried to be a rock-star in my recovery from that point forward. I did what I was told and went at my physiotherapists pace.

As I had mentioned in the previous post, after the first week I switched the crutches for a cane, which wasn’t too bad since he taught me how to use it properly (parallel with your bad leg as you walk and not out in front of it like a lot of people do), and after a week of the cane it was no aids whatsoever. It was a bit tricky at first but I eventually got the hang of it, although stairs were still quite hard and I had to concentrate and take it easy.

Another great recommendation by my physiotherapist was water therapy. All I needed was a swimming pool that had a shallow area that got progressively deeper. The reason for this was that in the beginning I was simply to just walk around in water that was up to my waist, what this allowed for was my body to get that sense of balance and the walking movement/motion yet still having the benefit of the water to help take the strain of weight and gravity off my leg. After doing this for a while I also added in periods of doing the bicycle motion under water as well. I really felt that this additional component of my physiotherapy really helped the progress of my recovery.

All in all everything was slow and took time but I kept progressing well. The only problem was that work was pushing to have me return to work, and before I knew it they asked my physiotherapist for his recommendation. Being the ethical gentleman that he is (which is important to me) he let them know that although I still required therapy I wasn’t in a position where I couldn’t travel to work and do my job. And that was the end of that. I was back to work and my life returned to its normal state and physiotherapy fell by the way side. It is completely my fault for letting that happen. I could have found some way to balance a strong continued recovery regimen but I didn’t. And I know that I am not 100% recovered because of it. My leg gained some muscle back but not close to what I had before. My knee still hurts from time to time depending on my level of activity, and the weather tends to affect it also, especially when it is a damp and rainy day. It makes crunchy noises too at times, which has me worried that scar tissue may have built back up. That being said, I need to fit my recovery back into my schedule or else things will never get better. I don’t want to be the person that says “well, I guess that is the way things are and I am just going to have to live with it.” I don’t want to live with this discomfort and pain, I don’t want to think that way, and I agree that right now this is the way things are but they don’t have to stay this way. I can do something to change it. And I will.

If anyone else has a knee injury recovery story I would love to hear it.

All the best,
Jonesy