Forty-Four then Forty-Three Days
Yesterday was a pretty pain free day. No skiing. 8 minutes of one-leg upper-body-only rowing. March 12 is my surgery and after that I'm on my way to taking being pain free for granted.
Then today. If my knee felt this good every day until March 12, I'd be psyched. I did 20 minutes of one-leg, upper-body-only rowing while watching Reno 9-1-1. Other than that I was perched on the couch. Took 1/2 meloxicam then went to Highland Lodge to ski with Vince. For over an hour of uphill I was totally pain free and I might add that it really couldn't have been more breathtaking. Then the downhill started. Against my will I snow-plowed as best I could coming off Barr Hill. I could feel the knee swelling. Maybe from being on it that long or maybe from the pressure of the snowplow, I'm not sure, but I wasn't nearly as mobile as I was when we started. Very slowly, side-stepping down a slight decline with more pain then I'd like to admit, I tried not to bend my knee (easy, because it was too swollen to bend) or grimace. I pretended I was still in my element so Vince wouldn't stress but he was on to me. Conversationally as not to arouse panic, I asked how far it was back to the lodge. His body language indicated that it wasn't right around the corner and got me thinking that we may have a situation here. There was a house in the distance. I couldn't see if the driveway was plowed and didn't know how would I get from the trail to their door if it was...but it was something. On the ski trail, I was trying to figure out a way to appear as though I was moving a lot faster than I actually was, while in reality I was moving more slowly than anyone had ever moved (you can't even imagine). Still wearing my no-big-deal demeanor, all I could do was keep moving and hope for the best. It was hard to ignore Vince's sighs and pretend to not hear the under-his-breath, for my 'benefit' comments that were just loud enough for me to know he was saying something and the exact wording wasn't important.
Wait. Is that a snowmobile? Thirty seconds later, rounding the corner pulling a track-setter was the Highland Lodge snowmobile (or an angel) with just enough room for me to fit between a lopper and a shovel. I hadn't been worried a bit.
I can't say I wasn't worried about a knee explosion, and being out of pain meds once I got settled but, it didn't happen. Once home, I iced and took the other half of the meloxicam. It's good.
My plan was...if there was an explosion...to tell Vin I wanted to pick up a few things in Morrisville then sneak off to the emergency room somehow. Luckily I didn't have to think it through all the way because driving would have been impossible.
Then today. If my knee felt this good every day until March 12, I'd be psyched. I did 20 minutes of one-leg, upper-body-only rowing while watching Reno 9-1-1. Other than that I was perched on the couch. Took 1/2 meloxicam then went to Highland Lodge to ski with Vince. For over an hour of uphill I was totally pain free and I might add that it really couldn't have been more breathtaking. Then the downhill started. Against my will I snow-plowed as best I could coming off Barr Hill. I could feel the knee swelling. Maybe from being on it that long or maybe from the pressure of the snowplow, I'm not sure, but I wasn't nearly as mobile as I was when we started. Very slowly, side-stepping down a slight decline with more pain then I'd like to admit, I tried not to bend my knee (easy, because it was too swollen to bend) or grimace. I pretended I was still in my element so Vince wouldn't stress but he was on to me. Conversationally as not to arouse panic, I asked how far it was back to the lodge. His body language indicated that it wasn't right around the corner and got me thinking that we may have a situation here. There was a house in the distance. I couldn't see if the driveway was plowed and didn't know how would I get from the trail to their door if it was...but it was something. On the ski trail, I was trying to figure out a way to appear as though I was moving a lot faster than I actually was, while in reality I was moving more slowly than anyone had ever moved (you can't even imagine). Still wearing my no-big-deal demeanor, all I could do was keep moving and hope for the best. It was hard to ignore Vince's sighs and pretend to not hear the under-his-breath, for my 'benefit' comments that were just loud enough for me to know he was saying something and the exact wording wasn't important.
Wait. Is that a snowmobile? Thirty seconds later, rounding the corner pulling a track-setter was the Highland Lodge snowmobile (or an angel) with just enough room for me to fit between a lopper and a shovel. I hadn't been worried a bit.
I can't say I wasn't worried about a knee explosion, and being out of pain meds once I got settled but, it didn't happen. Once home, I iced and took the other half of the meloxicam. It's good.
My plan was...if there was an explosion...to tell Vin I wanted to pick up a few things in Morrisville then sneak off to the emergency room somehow. Luckily I didn't have to think it through all the way because driving would have been impossible.
Labels: draining a knee, emergency room, exercise with arthritis, knee replacement, kneecap resurfacing, pain management, petalla femoral replacement
posted by Kathy at
2:20 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home