I love the Joe Henry song with the line in it "You're only as good as your knees." Though it describes an aging jock, it also fits this chubby menopausal woman.
My knees have given me a lot of problem over the years. In spartan days, I had to just suck it up and deal with it. I went to doctors only when I had to, and the pain in my knees just didn't seem worth my time. With an autistic son, a daughter, a job, grad school, and a worthless then-husband, it was just another thing I had to live with, like being slow-pay on bills ( a big embarrashment for me), getting to work/school on gas fumes, being paged to pick up my son when he was having a bad day, trying to spend some time with my daughter, working through the night( because it was convient, and , oh, yeah, trying to graduate from one of the toughest psychology graduate programs in the state. I actually avoided doctors, and this spoiled little rich girl learned that most things can be cured or prevented with tea and little five minute breaks. Or maybe I was just lucky.
Well, flashforward to a different life, with me with my big degree and professional job (ha, ha), and my daughter is 17 and a have a new husband is bonafide, and my son has sort of calmed down and lives with his dad but still visits and I get the H1N1- though I had the shot. The flu went away, but oh, my left knee- I could not walk and had to go to the hospital where the doctors wondered how I had walked around on them so long. Yep, they both are bad, but the doctor I ended up with, a specialist, only treats symptoms, so suggessted only one knee needed to be replaced.
ThatI had to agree, especially after looking at the x-rays. Now, I'm don't know much about x-rays, but I could look and see all sorts of gaps where there shoudl be no gaps in my knees and suddenly it made sense ot me why I feel the way I do descending stairs.
Then, miraculously, my knee felt better- it still hurt more than ever, but I could walk on it. And I went back to work, where there was too much work and I couldn't see taking off the six weeks needed for an operation until June.
Which is where we are now - June 15th is the day when it is scheudled. I hope that afterwords, I can walk the dogs, walk, lose weight and be much moe focused than I am now. Oh, and I'll also know when to keep my mouth shut.
Hail, modern science!