Ohhhhh, My Aching Knee

For those of you that don't know me, I have bad knees and most often they bother me but sometimes more than others. I only have 30% knee space left in both so when that's gone it will be bone on bone and time for replacements. I'm loosing about 10% a year so unless it stops, bionic knees, here I come. The doctor is trying to hold off because I'm pretty young. Finally, something I seem to be too young for! Anyway, a knee joint replacement lasts about 10 years or soand I would be looking at possibly 3 in my lifetime. The longer I can hold out, the better technology gets. (Note to number one son; go into orthopedics) Over the counter drugs can no longer to the job as far as anti inflamatories go. Now I go and have a shot under the kneecap which really works for me as long as it lasts. The first one lasted 5 months, the doctor thought I'd get 9-12 months out of it. No such luck, only 5. Two weeks ago just walking up stairs, bingo, the knee went out and has been misbehaving since. I went yesterday for my second shot. Even my doctor commented on the fact that I have a pretty good pain tolerance, I did birth 2 babies with nothing (I'm not saying that it didn't hurt, holy crap it did and I have nothing against anyone who uses drugs in labor, you go girl, do what it takes!) , but boy did that shot hurt. Much more than the first time. It is 40m Triamcinolone Acetonide with Lidocane 1%. Only 1% pain med. I'm asking for more next time. My doctor told me that my knee will hurt more before it gets better and I will be cursing him tonight, that didn't happen the first time. It sure as hell did this time. My knee must have been worse this time to start with. What this whole post is about is to not whine and complain about my knee, I have this theory that the more you complain, the more it hurts, but to talk about the things we take for granted. Like walking.
Last night my knee hurst so much, terrible pain radiating to my toes to my hip and I could hardly walk. At times, I couldn't walk period. It just throbbed and if I bent it at all, stabbing pain, tingling and some numbness. So much so that I was sick to my stomach. Here it was my number 2 son's first day on the job as a scooper at Ben & Jerry's ice cream store, the night before it opens and it is friends and family night. Any ice cream on the menu for a dollar. He was so excited and couldn't wait to serve us up a waffle cone. How could I not go. So I limped along and while I was there I could feel my leg swelling. I couldn't wait to leave, couldn't even eat my Phish Food ice cream (chocolate ice cream, marshmallow and caramel swirls and fudge fish in case you were wondering. I really wanted Oatmeal Cookie Crunch, cinnamon ice cream with chuncks of oatmeal cookies and fudge but that flavor wasn't in yet but I digress) I could hardly walk to the car. By the time I got home I couldn't bend my knee let alone pick my leg up off the floor to walk. Pretty comical to see me try and get up the stairs. Unfortunatly we have a 3 level house. Stairs everywhere. Sean got me situated in the recliner, leg up, my book, laptop, glass of water, pillow and blanket and I planned on sleeping in it. Phone rings, number one son asks can he bring some friends home to watch a DVD on the hi-def TV? Oh, and he was at the end of our street when he called so in the door they come before I can even get out of the chair. I was a sorry sight, made them wait in another room til I got out of there. Now I have to go up another set of stairs and into bed. I felt like I was about 100 years old. Everything was such an ordeal and my leg...the f-bombs were flying and I don't usually swear. My whole point is this, and aren't you glad I am finally getting to it; when you can run, skip, jog and even just walk, you don't realize how lucky you are. I was never so incapacitated in my life. There are people that live with this type of problem every single day. I feel bad for them but couldn't totaly understand what its like to be them. Now I do. Once they may have been an athelete or an average joe and now they live with pain everyday and can no longer run with the wind or just run after their kids. Not to put this thought into your head but even going to the bathroom was an Olympic event. These are things we do everyday without thinking about it. I tell Sean all the time, I don't want to be an old lady in a scooter someday, I don't want a handicap parking tag. I want to be as mobile as possible and not give into this. I will try to remember there are so many people that have it worse and deal with this. So next time you see someone limping along, breaking out in a sweat, grimacing, don't think to yourself, "Oh that poor person" I'm not the type that looks for sympathy but think, " Wow, I've got it good" and enjoy it. By the way, this morning I can bend my knee somewhat and it is not as painful as last night. I will feel better in a few days. Thank you Sean for taking such good care of me and keeping your cool when I wasn't. Love you.