I just realized that I have an anniversary of sorts coming up. On Memorial Day weekend in 2000, I turned to walk across the room to the table for dinner, and something went "pop" in my left knee. That was the last day until sometime in 2006 that I could walk without any possibility of pain. We had planned a 3 week tour of New England in the fall of 2000, and I did it on crutches, with my left knee in a brace. A hideously uncomfortable brace, let me add; even custom leg braces do not fit well on fat thighs.
Three surgeries, two painful rehabs, and five years of weight training and water aerobics later, I have two working (artificial) knees, I can walk better than I have in years (even before the "pop", my knees were compromised - the first X-rays showed advanced osteoarthritis in both knee joints; the "pop", although painful, was actually incidental, a torn meniscus). And, by the way, I'm in better shape than I think I've ever been in my life.
Does this count as lemonade? I think it does. Strangely, the state of California still considers me permanently disabled; I got my 2007-2009 handicapped placard in the mail this week. I don't need it; I wouldn't dream of using it now; but there it is. I'll have to ask my doctor about it.
I think what I'm trying to say here is, we never know what's going to happen, or when; and all we can do is cope with it as best we can. Am I proud of how I've coped with this? You bet!
Hmm. I may have to look into artificial knees (or at least one) at some point, after having this happen to mine.
ReplyDeleteHey, great story. Cute dog. thank goodness for advances in medical science. What would have been the result 75 -100 years ago? Now, that is scary.
ReplyDeleteI had a newish, to us, kitten dash across my forehead one morning while I was enjoying a lie in with the alarm clock turned off. Those little hind claws do take purchase. I told people I'd walked into a rose bush branch, because what really happened sounded, well, contrived. Plus, I looked like someone had taken a knife to my forehead.
She's turned into a really nice cat. Although, I now clip claws at regular intervals, and yes, occasionally she still dashes around like a mad thing. She just doesn't use my head as an obstacle course any more.
Linkmeister, that is a truly spectacular home disaster story; glad to hear you came through OK. And the dog. You wouldn't think having a tendon cut would cause arthritis later, but I'm never quite sure how these things work. It astounds me that door didn't have safety glass. As for the leg brace, I remember it well, I stumped around New England in something very like it.
ReplyDeleteBoggart, 75-100 years ago I wouldn't be functional at all (arthritic knees apart, in the '20s and '30s, treatment for thyroid disorder was so unusual that Dorothy Sayers used it as the plot device in a Lord Peter Wimsey short story), so let's just not go there. I've been a history buff all my life, and also profoundly grateful, no matter how interesting the periods sound, that I didn't have to live there.
From a distance of eight or nine years it's funny. At the time...
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