Life has it's ups and downs..

Once again, everything was going so well...and then....Bang!!

Just a quick post today: my right knee has been feeling so awesome and normal, that I forget it is only 5 months old. It has come along so much more quickly than the left knee. I attribute that to multiple factors: it wasn't as bad to start with, I knew how to rehab it more effectively, there was no infection of stitches, the other leg is full-strength and supports it well. 

So what did I do? Several possibilities, but the bottom line is I DID TOO MUCH!! So my knee  talked back, and now it is hurting, and I am sitting again. The funny thing is how suddenly it came on: one minute it was fine, and then I placed my foot on a step, and had excruciating pain next to the scar, and couldn't put any weight on it. After a few hours of it getting worse not better, I put in a call to my doctor and saw him the next morning.

Diagnosis: Tendonitis. 
Prognosis: It will heal. 
Treatment: Rest, ice, heat, elevation, wrapping if desired, pain pills if desired. Preventative plan: Stop doing too much!!

Sigh. Well. The good news is that it is not a big deal. It will get better. Now I have an excuse to sit and get more paperwork and maybe a bit of sewing done. Life rolls on. 

More good news: in the 5 months since this knee was repaired, I have finally been able to lose some weight: about a pound a month. That's not a super lot, but the only change has been the extra bits of energy I expend daily because I am moving more all the time. Nice. 

April 15, 2014 Happy Knee Re-Birth-Day to me!!

Greetings readers! It has been a full year since my first partial knee MakoPlasty replacement. What a wonderful experience this has turned out to be. I feel better than I have in many years, and now that the second knee has been repaired, my activity level is increasing in such a way that my weight has finally begun to drop off. 

At this point, the little scars on my shin and one of the ones on my thigh have disappeared. The main scar is much diminished, but who cares?! I am happy to show them off because they mean I can walk, run, jump. Although I don't do much to the latter two..by choice. I want this knee to last the rest of my life, and considering the longevity in my family, that could be another 37 years! (I'm 63, you do the math.) 

My right knee, which is only 4 months old, is coming along much more quickly than the left one did. I have to remind myself that it has only been FOUR months! 

I am not sure why the right knee seems to be healing so much more quickly. Here are my guesses:
1. It wasn't so as bad to start with - 80% collapse as opposed to bone-on-bone.
2. The left knee is strong and supports me fully.
3. The alignment in better, because it had not gotten as bad.
4. The right was medial, and the left was lateral.

I discovered a few days ago that I can carefully, (on a padded surface), settle myself onto hands and knees and do "cat/dog" Yoga poses. Lovely!! I have really missed my regular yoga practice. I never really stopped doing Yoga, but found the inability to get on my knees quite frustrating.