Which makes it hard to get your chores done, to say nothing of explaining all those truncated walkies to Tobie the Peripatetic Mutt. But…
…my right knee, which is my only intact knee, started going south on me about a year and a half ago. Just an annoyance until this past week when I got out of bed and couldn’t even fully flex it. I expected to have trouble with the left one when I got old, it was put back together from little pieces. Ironically it’s fine. It’s just the stump that keeps fraying at the end.
The right one got operated on twice: Once to install a big metal spike through my shinbone, then again to remove the spike when it worked its way out and wrecked the cartilage in the knee. I had trouble with the knee for a while in my twenties, then it seemed to heal. Part of getting old is finding out that all that self-congratulation for your healing ability was just waiting to bite you in the ego.
So I’ve been sitting a lot, and taking a lot of ibuprofen and slathering the joint with menthol-smelling goo. It’s not as bad as it was, but I don’t think it’s really going to get better. Maybe next year’s building project will be adding a lame-old-man ramp to the porch.
I think this is as long as I’ve ever gone without posting when the blog was actually working: Sorry about that, just haven’t been in a very talkative mood – besides which nothing special has really been going on. But I have at least been keeping up with the daily stuff, if sometimes only minimally. This morning dawned pleasant, so I caught up with some laundry…
…and that’s probably all the excitement there’ll be for the day.
Getting old’s a bitch, but it beats the alternative. Which, in your case, would probably mean being dinner for coyotes.
Maybe someone will gift you one of these:
https://actiontrackchair.com/models/action-trackstander-falcon/
Sorry you’re going through this. Entropy sucks. I’ve had a similar path, but I came out of all my ballistic motorcycle incidents much luckier. I do have two replaced knees that, thankfully, work “good enough”. Still, at 73, I have plenty of entropy related issues to keep me humble and thankful.
Wish I had a miracle fix, or even a good work-around, but I’m just a dumb ass, getting through life with my fair share of abuse, self inflicted.
Wishing you good fortune (and luck, can’t hurt) on getting through tuis…unpleasantry.
I used to chuckle at Mom when she would say “This old age ain’t for sissies”.
I’m not laughing anymore. I’m pretty sure she’s up there laughing at me now.
Anonymous: “being dinner for coyotes”.
They’d have to get past Toby first. He could probably kick ass on a one to one.
@boynsea: true enough, dat.
Glad to hear a few syllables from you as it had been a while. Like you and a bunch more of the folks that come here I wish I had a magic trick answer but at 72 some days are just dirt when it comes to health. Did you finish stocking up your winter woodpile?
I’m afraid that you need to make yourself known to your local orthopedic doc.
Before you build a ramp, go walk up and down a few to see if that is really what you want. Walking down a ramp absolutely tears my right knee up. Give me stairs with railings and shallow steps.
Meh… I just turn my “Tens device”, up to eleven .
Shocking I say, just shocking.
To my shame, not really. I’m about halfway through all that juniper I dragged home and have barely started cutting my pallets apart let alone chopping them to stove length. Good thing I already have half a shed full. I actually considered buying a trailer load of wood from one of the guys who sell it in town – I could afford to do that now and next year I probably will.
Oh, Joel. Having just gotten home after having a triple by-pass a couple of weeks ago, I totally understand your predicament. Enjoy the time you get to spend at the secret lair as much as you can because who knows how long that will be.
Yikes, Mike! Hope you’re in for a complete and quick recovery.
Joel, one of the nice things about living up here north of disorder is the medical care. I was home six days after the event, and I’ve been loafing ever since. Doc says I should be fit as a fiddle after around twelve weeks.
On the plus side, this little setback has gotten me out of the socializing, which I already hate doing. And, for now, I don’t have to look for excuses not to do. 😁
Last January I fell and twisted my right knee’. Held off seeing the doc for a month, hoping it would heal, but nope. After too many scans and way too many extraneous health issues discovered, they finally diagnosed a badly torn up meniscus, and after waiting several weeks for appointments/schedules, I got the surgery in July. About a month later, it was as good as it was going to get.
First half of the year, got nothing done. I’m trying to catch up before the weather hits, but the cold and the snow have other opinions. At 72, I’m happy enough to be able to get around and work without too much pain. (Usually. Sigh.)
A good ortho doc is a Godsend. Hope it works out that you can get one if/when you need it.
In that case, happy holidays! 🙂
Oh yeah, I forgot I had a meniscus and ACL repair that lasted for years. I’m sure doctors appts. are a hassle, but it could be a life changing improvement.
Getting old sucks. Seems a lot of blogs I read age is catching up with the authors. Hate when lights go out.
I have had both knees repaired but one of the problems that I have now at age 82 is my right shoulder hurts to the point that it was very, very painful and sleeping was nonexistent so I went to an orthopedist and he now injects a gel into my shoulder it lasts for about three months. I absolutely love it. I also have a good friend who has two very very bad knees, and she goes to the same doctor. He also injects the gel into her knee And she can operate for three months with no problem at all. You might look into the injections because it is easy it is painless and makes you very, very comfortable.