I did it.  I made it through an entire week without injuring myself.  This may seem like an odd milestone to celebrate, but given that last week I hurt myself while walking, I’ll take it.

There’s nothing like getting a diagnosis, then reading more about it online and finding you are even lamer than you thought (pun intended).  My injury is a meniscus tear, which WebMD says “can occur when you lift something heavy or play sports.”

Was I doing either of those things?  No.  I simply walked onto a Metro train, planted my right foot and turned left to walk up the aisle to a seat.   The result was a sharp pain in my knee that I expected to go away while I slept that day, but got progressively worse throughout the week, eventually making it difficult to walk at all.

Fortunately it doesn’t appear to have been a major tear, so I should be back to things like running pretty soon.

It’s also great to know I have the support and sympathy of my friends and family.  Roommate CA’s first question upon hearing the diagnosis was whether I would have some sort of brace or device he could make fun of this time.  He was referring to this, my friend for eight weeks during the great Stress Fracture Winter of 2009-10:

Sadly, for him, there’s nothing of the sort with this injury.  Though I still have the boot in my closet somewhere in case of emergency.