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13 April 2024

The knee update is that I’ve finished the seventh week of physical therapy, and, while I have made some progress, it’s feeling kinda like I’ve stalled out. However, measurements were taken again this week and I seem to have improved, which means that Medicare will allow me to continue for a while longer. I knew my legs were getting stronger, but I was pleasantly surprised that my knees are moving more. There’s a caveat, though – there is no progress in my ability to navigate the stairs, and even a visit to the grocery store leaves my legs/knees sore and very unhappy. I had a good conversation with my primary care doctor last week. He feels and I agree that it’s time for me to consider and plan for total knee replacements.

I’m not super happy about it but, just like the hearing aids, bionic knees will greatly improve my quality of life. I got some recommendations from my primary care doc and also from my current orthopedic surgeon (he doesn’t do knee replacements), and there was some overlap. I did my due diligence and chose one of the surgeons to see. I called, and the first available appointment was for July 2nd. I was on the wait list for an earlier cancellation appointment and I got texts pretty much every morning for an earlier appointment, but it was always with someone else in the practice. Since I’d done my research, I knew that I only wanted to see the surgeon I had chosen. I kept clicking the button to stay with my July appointment. But, toward the end of the week, an earlier appointment came up with him, so I snagged it!

I’ll be seeing him soon – on my birthday! April 23rd.

So, I’ve been able to get stronger with PT, and I was able to get a shorter walk in last Saturday (only to the first set of benches at the pond), but what’s happening inside my knees is not just arthritis – the tears in the lateral menisci in both knees will not heal on their own. If they could, the right one would have healed eight years ago. But it didn’t. Happily, I leveled up today to 20 minutes on my recumbent bike. It’s at the lowest resistance, but I’ll be able to start moving that up soon. It was a good plan to get it up to my sunroom as I’ve been on it 3x/week ever since it’s been upstairs. My knees don’t hurt on it, and they bend OK as long as there is no weight on them . . . well, they bend enough to ride the bike OK . . . so at least I’m getting some great cardio in. I know this is helping since my walking has been so curtailed.

Today I was talking about swimming with a friend of mine and I remembered that, back in the 80s swimming and Jazzercize were my favorite forms of exercise. I belonged to an old city gym in Denver. It was mainly a boxing gym and had originally been built in 1908 as a bathhouse. I guess that’s why there was a pool. It was in what was then a dodgy part of town (I’m kinda thinking it’s been gentrified now, since there are apartments nearby that are pretty spendy), but it was all I could afford back in the day. Women weren’t lifting back then – it was the era of Jane Fonda – but my strength came from endless laps in that pool and early morning Jazzercize before work.

I have loved the water all my life. My mom used to tell the story of taking me out to walk along by the beach in the winter in Chicagoland when I was a toddler. Out in my snowsuit (remember those? ;-D), I slipped through the snow fence (Chicago beaches used to have snow fences in the winter) and was making a break for the water . . . . I have no idea how she managed to get through the fence and catch me before I made it all the way there. :-D

I used to swim more at my health club, but I realized as I was chatting with my friend this morning that I haven’t done any serious swimming since before I tore the lateral meniscus in my right knee. That was more than eight years ago . . . I would occasionally try, but any sort of kick – scissor, frog, freestyle – really bothered that knee. I hadn’t realized that I’d let my world get so much smaller in this area until this morning – I mean, I was even lifeguard qualified back in my Germany days. I was never a great freestyle (crawl) swimmer. Side, breast, back and elementary back strokes were my forte. Back then, if you were drowning, I was the one you’d want to save you, because I could side stroke on either side pretty much forever while towing another person. Slow, steady, relaxed . . . I was always in the water any time I could be.

I’ll need both my knees in pain-free, working order to start again, but it’s something I always loved and it feels like it would be really nice to get back to it. Of course, that will be down the line after both of my knees are replaced (if that’s what the new surgeon and I decide upon), but it’s nice to think that I could actually be swimming again. Really swimming.

In other news, my hearing aid fitting got put off, but only by two days, thankfully, so it will still be next week, just later in the week.

In the car yesterday morning, the oldies station was really hitting tunes I loved. I always want to write them down, but I’m always driving when I hear them. :-D But this one, which I know I’ve shared before, came on, and it’s just so great that I thought I’d share it again.

This is Yusuf Cat Stevens – If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out,from the amazing film, Harold and Maude.