break a leg, pop a knee!

Am becoming a veteran of dance with orthopaedic injuries... dislocated my knee (again!) during the last rehearsal for Nunuk Ragang on Tuesday. Will be off dancing for a bit. Again. Goddess' post (whichI've been trying to leave a message on but some strange formatting prevents me from entering the word verification response) neatly describes the Knee Incident. That was one stretch I shouldn't have done. Or it could have been because I forgot to bring along my knee guard that day, though I'm not sure the knee guard would have saved it. Thanks to Goddess & Pilates Instructor for the innovative hot 'rice-pack' (which quite amused the medical officer at A&E).

I didn't realise how prone my kneecap actually was to popping again until my appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon the following day. Doc was able to move the patella around like it was floating on water, and just as it was beginning to sink in how strange that looked and felt, doc manages to actually slightly shift it sideways again! It would seem that the fibres which prevent too much sideways movement of the patella are either torn or severely weakened (probably mostly from the last injury). Am to go for physio for 4 weeks, and doc will reassess the knee after that. Surgery is an option for some patients, to sew up the said fibres. But strengthening the thigh muscles and physiotherapy 'for the rest of my life' probably would be sufficient.

I can walk fine, using a patella-stabilising knee brace. This new one I got doesn't seem to be as ergonomic as the model I used the last time - the lower section is too narrow and has a deadly grip on my calf, which gets really sore by the end of the day. Also, it takes 5 minutes, friction and a lot of tugging of neoprene material on already-sore calves to take off the brace.. I could well get other injuries in the process, ha ha. Anyway, that's going to end - armed with IKEA velcro, a pair of scissors and needle and thread, I am going to make modifications to the knee brace to incorporate a slit where it covers the shin (which can be opened/closed/adjusted using the Velcro) that would allow for improved circulation and safer removal!

Was looking forward very much to performing the dance but I guess I'll have to resign to the fact that with the bad knee I really can't leap and stretch anymore without risking an aggravation of the old injury. (Tap dancing is obviously not the best thing to do to a bad knee either, but at least the movements are more controllable... though I'd probably never be able to do single-leg pull-backs on the left ;-D)

I shall leave you for now to be entertained by some old war stories:

- The last kneecap dislocation and the first physio session with the electrodes

- Easter weekend, a danged earring stud, and an absent-minded triage nurse

- The oddest fracture: Don't think I've blogged about this incident from university days, other than the brief reference to it in 'the last kneecap dislocation' above... the lesson here was, make sure you do dance practices on a proper floor; don't ever compromise on that. A team of university mates putting on a contemporary dance piece to the theme song of 1998 HK movie 'The Stormriders' rehearsed on carpeted cement floor in the Hall dining room due to lack of proper rehearsal space. Yours truly executed the mother of all front kicks on pointe (i.e. atop the hard shoes that allow ballet dancers to stand on their toes). The upward momentum threw me off balance and I fell sitting on the floor. I felt mostly just numb for the rest of the day, and nobody, including the campus GP, suspected anything more than a bad jolt and some shocked thigh muscles until the x-ray results showed a hairline fracture on the pelvic bone. So for weeks I went to classes on the university's Disability Services van, hobbled around on crutches, even gave the campus sports doctor a scolding for scheduling an appointment to "teach me how to use crutches" on a date TWO weeks after I got the crutches by which time I would already be 'pro' at it (tho it really wasn't his fault), and went everywhere clutching a cushion which i had to sit on. And obviously had to pull out from the dance. No fun.

my gila july

Short+Sweet Malaysia 2009 - July 29-Aug 1

the rehearsals for Nunuk Ragang in Short + Sweet Malaysia 2009 Dance & Theatre Festival started last week. missed the first one, managed to catch up during the second one, and may have forgotten it all for tonight's third one ;-D *slap*slap*

on the dance (from the S+S website):

Nunuk Ragang
Choreographer & Dancer 1: BB Ostella Adam
Dancer 2: Doralisa Lee
Dancer 3: Joanna Tan
Dancer 4: Grace Quah
Dancer 5: Callista Chuah
Dancer 6: Chan Wen Li
Dancer 7: Melissa Wong
Dancer 8: Eric Lim Jian Hong
Dancer 9: Gayathri Paary
Dancer 10: Yharsmeen Naharuddin
Synopsis: Based on a Sabahan legend that tells why the Dusun/Kadazan tribe left their original homeland of the same name to spread across the rest of Sabah.

if i remember to bring my camera tonight i'll post up some rehearsal shots onto the S+S blog...

and i'm gonna get one of 'em S+S mugs when I hit KLPAC this weekend...

Rehearsals leading up to BBGS @ Pavilion on August 4th

in other news, the BBGS@Pavilion event happens on August 4th (for more info, click on the link and go to 'Project Revive') and the next choir rehearsal will be this Sunday.. look forward to meeting the choir members who didn't manage to attend 2 weeks ago. which reminds me.. I'm supposed to be accompanying them on the new song and I haven't tried that out on the piano!

July Graduation

My first batch of students whom I've seen since their first year... landmark event, this one...

what keeps you sane? #2

in 2006, i rambled on about 'What Keeps You Sane?'. revisiting that 3 years later (for some reason i seem to be on a three-year-milestone roll..), i don't think any of the contents of that list have changed, though I will add...
reading and re-reading Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything - one can never get bored of Bryson's writing style.. and for some reason i particularly like the sections on volcanoes and earthquakes - nerdy me rolled on the floor laughing at the section on the 'Mohole expedition that eventually came to be known as the No-Hole'..... well nevermind... I thought everybody learnt about the Mohorovicic discontinuity in lower-secondary-school geography but maybe not...)

i'd probably have to expand the part on then instant messaging programs to social networking applications.. you know which social networking application :), it's ingenious and let's face it, it's insidiously become part of our lives!

the rarer friends who are like-minded and understand you enough to know when you don't need a lecture but just a listening ear for a second, either because you just need to have your thoughts heard, or because you need a sounding board as to whether you're on the right track.

something new (that's partly because i haven't had access to a well-equipped kitchen for a long time) - trying out new recipes (of course it helps that everything i've tried has worked out for me so far! :-D) would probably qualify for this list as well.

singing in ensembles (and the often zany camaraderie that goes with it!)

what keeps you sane?

the third summer

this will be the third summer. it's been 3 years. time flies.

and summer (notionally, anyway - forgive the northern-hemisphere terminology!) comes again very soon - can't wait for the three months of relative calm and quiet when we will actually have our offices to ourselves and have some space (physically and metaphorically) to think! [Notice the absence of blogposts since September 2008!]

things to do for the Third Summer - learn the guitar maybe (i still think it's the most convenient instrument around and it's a shame that i have a guitar around and i don't know how to play it!) and take up painting of some sort again... with the dawn of the computing age, i haven't hand-drawn anything for ages!!

meanwhile, the SnL Singers will be performing at Mr Ho's Fine Foods Restaurant, Hartamas Shopping Centre, on Saturday April 18, 2009 - drop by for an evening of culinary delights and a cappella treats - jazz, barbershop, swing/doo-wop - the stuff that will have you snapping your fingers all night long! admission is free, just pay for your own drinks & food.