the state of my knee

wow! huge and somewhat sheepish apologies for causing a panic with my offhand comment about breaking my knee. there's no need to panic, although i must say--i REALLY appreciate all the concern! here's the deal. when i was 13, i was kicked in the side of my right knee (playing co-ed soccer) by a giant of a boy who was not really in control of his long-ass arms and legs (he eventually reached 6'9"!), and my knee has never been the same. i have some weird stretched cartilage on the inside of the knee, a couple of loose chunks of cartilage in there that makes my knee all poppy, and my knee cap is a bit more float-y than it should be. add to this the fact that i am also genetically predisposed to have weak leg joints, and well--it's a mess. i've seen a couple of different orthopedists about this, and have been told by all of them that it's "not quite bad enough" for surgery. so. it's pretty easy for me to hurt it. and wednesday in our dance lesson, i wrenched it doing a tango move called a corte to roll-out, which involves a fast pivot on the leg in question. i was wearing totally incorrect shoes for this move, and they were just the smallest bit too sticky on the bottom to allow a free pivot, so stupidly, i forced it. the knee is not actually BROKEN, so perhaps i should have used a better word there. it's just really ouchie. REALLY ouchie yesterday, and pretty ouchie today. tomorrow it will be somewhat ouchie, and by sunday it will be mostly ok. however, you will not see me on a dancefloor till next wednesday, and here's hoping the proper dance shoes i just ordered will be here by then. so yeah--no need to panic, people. if a wild animal came after me, i would be toast, but other than that, i am mostly alright.