Clash Royale - Masters League!

Finally hit a new milestone today, obtaining Masters League after a pretty nailbiting final game

The deck used:

Average Elixir Cost: 3.0

The core cards I used were Hog Rider, Goblin, Zap, Musketeer - mainly because they were maxed out. I'm currently maxing out Fireball so I guess I'm stuck with that xD. Ice Wizard has saved me too much defensively, so the only 2 variations I played with were the Cannon/Ice Golem.

I've tried Inferno Tower but didn't like the lack of versatility it had - I wasn't facing Golem/LH all too often, and it usually isn't that great against Giant (due to the opponent's ability to stack other small things behind it). Cannon is all around more versatile and fits into my cyclish deck better.

The last card, Ice Golem, was a last moment of inspiration. For a long time, I was using a Level 9 Mini Pekka or a Level 6 Pekka - clearly suboptimal at the trophy levels I was playing at where most people have maxxed out cards. I thought I needed some sort of tank killer, and even considered my Level 2 Lumberjack.

Eventually I realised I needed a card that was level-neutral - i.e. performs just as well even when underlevelled. There are 3 cards that fit this bill - Ice Spirit, Skeletons (99% of the time you don't rely on their damage anyway) and Ice Golem. After a few playtests of Ice Golem, I loved how high skill cap this card was and how efficiently it trades up for things like Pekka, Prince, EBarbs, Valk, etc (basically just kite them into the opposite lane, and play a Ice Wiz/Musketeer in the middle to pick it off as it's being kited)

With the deck locked in, it was just a matter of dodging some of the deck's weaknesses - any Lava Hound deck would destroy me once they kill my Musketeer (e.g. with Lightning); Giant / Golem decks will be quite tough as I have no tank killer, and I have to rely on split pushing to win. True enough, as I advanced up, I lost most of my LH/Giant/Golem games, but thankfully I didn't face them too often in the final push.

And the one true test came in the final game just before Masters - I was 8 trophies away... and faced a Golem deck. Thankfully, my gambit-style play worked as we took each other's Princess Towers, and he couldn't really defend my quick Hog cycle pressure on his opposite lane as he tried to Golem deathball my King tower on one lane.

Yay!

Plica Syndrome - Part 3 - First Physiotherapy (Day 4)

Went for my follow-up visit with Dr Lim Mui Hong today when he replaced my bandages and checked on my wound - nothing amiss, except for the $100+ from my wallet. Will be going back one last time in a week's time to remove the stitches.

The highlight of my day was my first visit to my physiotherapist, Mark from The Physio Movement. It's my first time seeing him, and they are well-reviewed online. It's a bit too early for me to leave my review, so I'll save it for a few weeks time.

Mark is a friendly guy, trying to chat abit to break the ice. During the session, he did some manual therapy (basically some massage to release tight muscles), a 15 mins session of TENS, and he ended it off with some advice on walking with crutches (try to retain my normal walking gait, don't overcorrect with a limp), and prescribed some daily exercises to do at home.

He told me that:
- I should walk without crutches in 2 weeks
- After 5-6 weeks he may let me do some light jogging
- Back to normal activity after 3 months

I'm slightly disappointed with the recovery timeline, as my informal Google search showed some people who actually went back to normal activity in 2-4 weeks. Oh well, have to trust the process and just pray for speedy and FULL recovery!

The general progress so far is some slight improvements in knee extension over the past 3 days. Knee flexion entirely depends on how much swelling there is in the knee... today there suddenly seemed to be some swelling so my sub90 knee flexion became a very tight 90. Bearing weight on the knee is still quite uncomfortable, though I can generally survive on one crutch, even no crutch if I limp hard.

Plica Syndrome - Part 2 - Surgery + Post-Surgery

Just got home from my knee arthoscopy surgery for my plica syndrome!

I decided to journal my experience so others can have a point of reference.

To read more about my exact condition, you can check out part 1 here.

After a long time of ruminating and consideration, I decided to go for a knee arthroscopy surgery. According to my doctor Lim Mui Hong, it’s a fairly minor surgery with low risk. He seemed quite confident so that was reassuring.

My surgery was scheduled at 9.30AM, which meant I was asked to check in to Mount Alvernia Hospital at 7.30AM. I had to fast for >8h before the surgery, which meant I skipped breakfast and didn’t drink anything in the morning (I read that you can actually drink, just not eat. All the Nurses who asked me a gazillion times also only asked ‘when was your last meal’ and didn’t ask when did I last drink water so.... maybe you can drink? Check with your doctor)

Checking in was pretty fast, and I was changed into my operating gown by 8+ and chilling in my ward. As it was my first surgery, I was pretty nervous and didn’t know what to expect. Thankfully the Wife was with me!

Just before 9, someone came to wheel me up to the operation theater. It is time!!

It was a surreal feeling being wheeled in the bed/gurney... slightly disconcerting.

When I reached upstairs, I had to wait again as it wasn’t time yet. It was an uncomfortable (and cold!) 20+ mins as I heard patients being wheeled around me and heart rate monitors beeping out of rhythm. Can be quite unnerving! Not sure why the air con was so cold too, won’t the surgeon shiver or something.

Luckily the surgery was very punctual - at 9.25 my anaestheologist came to me and briefly explained what was going to happen. ‘You will go to sleep, and it will be done!’ He said cheerfully.

THEN he wheeled me into the operating theatre and suddenly like ten different things were happening at once. Someone was preparing the operating table for me, another put a heart rate monitor on my chest, another took my pulse, the anaestheologist was inserting the tube into my hand which my GA would be fed in, and my surgeon was jokingly asking me ‘so which knee ah?’ It was very confusing, but impressively efficient too as each staff worked like cogs of a wheel and had me all hooked up and ready to go within a minute.

I wasn’t asked to count down from a 100, unlike all those stories you hear. I don’t really remember what the last thing said to me was, probably ‘is that bozo still awake?’., I don’t remember dozing off. Next thing I knew I woke up in my ward, about 1.5h later, and my whole body felt like it was still asleep due to the GA still in my system.. I groggily said some stuff to my wife to tell her I’m awake then went back to sleep as the drugs slowly wore off.

I was kept in bed for another few hours (including a lunch break of porridge) and my surgeon came by at 3+ to check on me. Everything went smoothly, and he told me to do some quad squeezing and leg extension/flexion, with the goal of regaining full range of motion.

Currently my knee feels very tight, and I can’t bend it nor extend it fully yet, especially with the thick bandages still wrapped around it. Quite hard to move around without crutches too since the joint is quite weak and stiff.

Hope it gets better quick! Will be going back to see him for a follow up in 4 days time, and also see the physio for some PT.