Hangin' from My Armpits at the Raintree Resort

We start the Dells week at the Wilderness. Water park our guts out. Inside, outside, wave pool and deer park, horseback riding ... we did it all.

Somewhere along the line, we had the idea that if the first part of the week was livin' it up at the swankier Wilderness, we could be more practical the last couple of day and finish our adventure at the more affordable Raintree Resort.

The girls want to swim, so my mom and sister head to the outdoor pool. I put on workout clothes, grab a bottle of water and head to the fitness center in the basement. It's deserted, so I hop up on the treadmill and start with my quarter mile walking warm-up.

As 0.25 clicks by on the odometer, I press the "faster" button and ease into a run. Quite literally 10 or so steps into my run pace I hear a pop like I've never heard before and my left knee gives way.

I catch myself by my armpits on the treadmill and the belt keeps rolling as I frantically try to find the "stop" button.

I bet it was funny to watch.

So there I am. On the treadmill. Freaking out and trying to catch my breath. I get up on my right leg and determine I can't put weight on my left. "Just chill out. It's just going to take a second, " I tell myself. Try again to stand on it. Holy Moses, no! That's not going to work.

Hmmm. What are my options here? I'm in the bowels of the hotel, by myself, 12 feet from the door. If I can get to the hallway, surely someone will come by, right?

So I hop down off the treadmill, using other machines to steady me. Try to step on my left leg again. Nope. Not yet.

Hop to the door. Manuever out into the hallway and wait. I can hear voices, but have no idea where they are. So I wait. And no one comes.

I can see a door at the end of a long hall that will take me to the indoor pool. About halfway down the same hall, there's a staircase that will get me to the lobby. Can I hop that far?

Hop. Hop. Hop. Hop some more. I'm at the stairway and wondering how much hop I have left. I decide it's unwise to try to make it to the pool. So I sit on the bottom stair and start scooting up on my butt.

I land in the lobby, patiently wait until the person working the front desk finishes checking in a couple. "Excuse me," I say. "I need some help. I did something to my knee in the fitness center and I can't stand on it."

She looks thoroughly confused, but comes over to see what's going on. I ask her to go get Karla. As she hurries back down the stairs, I finally relax long enough to realize how much my flipping knee hurts and tears spring to my eyes.

Several doctor trips, crutches, braces, Xrays and an MRI later, I learn I have a radial tear in my meniscus, which means it's unlikely to heal on its own and unlikely to respond to surgery. Plus, there's too much arthritis in the joint for a person my age. Recommendation from sports doc is to stay as active as I can, do some PT, and try to delay surgery as long as possible. No pivot/push sports like tennis. Walking OK; running out.

(P.S. I'll let Karla tell you how she put me on one of those brass luggage carts to evacuate me from the hotel.)

I'm pissed off. Completely and utterly pissed off. At this point, I've lost about 40 pounds and have no desire to slow down the pace. I can literally see the quad muscle in my left leg disappearing. I'm scared to death to get back on the treadmill. Can't get down my stairs to the basement anyway.

And then I discover Wii Just Dance.