Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Ice Packs

I'm not talking about the north or south poles. I'm talking about the ice packs wrapped around my knees. I do it twice a day. It's cold, but not as unpleasant as I thought it would be. And it actually seems to help.

Additionally I do stretch exercises each day. I have to do each position and hold it for one minute. For me that is 30 big inhales and 30 big exhales. And, I'm telling you, each minute is the longest minute of the day. The stretched area burns at the end of the hold for that position. The whole purpose of these exercises is to loosen my hips up so that it takes pressure off my knees. This, too, seems to be helping. Although, last night was a bad night.

Today I saw the orthopedist. I like him and my therapist. They seem to know what they are doing. The orthopedist said my knees are pretty shot. So he gave me a shot in each knee. Steroid to reduce the inflammation. He said that the shots should last up to a year. They take 2 weeks to fully kick in. He also ordered a knee brace for my right knee. He said if that helps he will order one for the left knee as well. I think somebody just pulled the plug on my wallet.

He said, ultimately I am likely to have knee replacements something like two years down the road. I asked if it was partial replacement. He took me to a chart and said we cut here and here. He made it look like they were going to cut my leg off in 3 pieces. But, what he meant was they would remove the entire knee and replace it. That doesn't sound pleasant. But it may be more pleasant than the everyday pain of bad knees. 

So Audrey and I went out and celebrated my day of good news by buying our Christmas tree and by having a ginger snap latte. Audrey's was a skinny, of course.
And, yes, it was at Starbucks. They can't blame me for 95% decrease in profits. Now that their shares are so cheap they should thank me for my business by sending me a 100 shares. Ha!

Anyway, I think the latte gave me heartburn. Think I'll stick to real coffee. After all, real coffee is good for the colon, and I sure wouldn't want to get colon cancer on top of bad knees. Would you?







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