Laconical Travels: Trip to the doctor

Yesterday I went to a hospital to get a doctor to have a look at my knee. For those of you that don't know, years ago back in high school I had a couple of knee reconstructions. It's been pretty good since then, and I've been playing a lot of basketball on it this year in Shanghai.

About 6 weeks ago, I landed awkwardly on someone else when going for a rebound during a game, and felt something crack inside my knee. I was fairly sure it wasn't major damage, as there wasn't much pain (if you tear a ligament in your knee, it is AGONY), but over the next few days it got swollen so I gave it a bit of a rest. Since then, it hasn't really gotten any better. I've gone through periods of a couple of weeks with very little activity (such as when I went back to Australia), but it hasn't really made any difference. During normal activity such as walking (or even running) it doesn't seem to hurt, but occasionally when sitting it gets a bit stiff, and can swell up a little after I've been exercising.

I was getting a little worried that it hadn't fully healed by now, so did some research online and found an international medical centre at a hospital here in Pudong. I made an appointment for yesterday, and decided to walk there since it was a nice day (and only 5km away). The doc gave me knee a once-over and said while there doesn't seem to be any ligament damage, I may have injured something else, and suggested an MRI. So I'll probably book one of those in the next couple of weeks once I get my insurance details sorted out (it costs more than $AUD1000, so I'm not that keen to pay for it).

Anyway, after the appointment I did a bit more walking around down near the river and took some photos. I've uploaded a few since you rarely get to see the Shanghai skyline with blue sky in the background.