Do you know how hard it is to walk in the sand? Here in Panama City, the beaches are beautiful white sand. But it’s loose and deep and especially if you’re not accustomed to it, which I’m not, walking in it, especially with a little uphill slant, is hard.

So that made me think of Millie tonight as I was laying (or lying, I always forget which verb to use) in bed and my left knee was aching. I think our youngest son is our girls’ favorite person. They know he’ll as soon as he comes over he’ll take them outside to the backyard to play ball even if he doesn’t have his two girls with him. So this sunny afternoon, he shows up and they’re immediately outside. My son, a diehard Costco shopper, had turned me on to this grooved dog kickball to help the dog get a good grip on the ball. My girls love it and when I kick it for them, unless it lands in the flower bed or on the deck roof, they love to chase it.

So this particular afternoon he’s out kicking the ball for them and me, being a good human mom and a good fur mom, I’m standing in the yard watching them. It’s not like I was standing in the middle of the yard or anything, I was standing just off the patio. The dogs were waiting anxiously for Justin to kick the ball, bouncing around on their paws. He kicked it high in the air and Millie, my 100-pound gentle girl, turned and at a full run to be the first to get to the ball, nailed me right in the left knee and knocked me flat on my back. I envision one of those cartoon things where a person goes flying backward and lands with a thud. That was me. And you know how when you get to be a certain age and something happens, you just know it can’t be good (like the time I decided to participate in a sack race at the family reunion, fell and heard my rib snap?) I didn’t hear any bones break but from the excruciating pain in my left knee, I just knew something was not good. I was lying there writhing (good word don’t you think?) in pain, holding my knee and trying not to cry like some wussy baby. My son was standing over me looking kind of perplexed like “what is mom doing on the ground?” not “OMG mom, are you hurt???”

I guess he realized I was hurt and he tried to help me off the ground. Silly boy. He doesn’t realize at our age most of us can’t just pop up from the ground. It’s a process. Sit up, get your wits about you, turn over, get on your knees (one of which I’m sure is broken) and push yourself off the ground to a standing position all the while supporting yourself on your knees and hoping the effort does not cause a noisy spontaneous release of gas. (Why is that?)

Once I was up and realized I could still walk and stand on my knee, I figured it wasn’t a major injury. The next couple of days it was painful, but gradually, it started not hurting so much except for laying in bed at night. That’s when the aching starts that runs from behind my knee and up and down on the outside of my leg from butt to calf. That’s why I was thinking of Millie while I was lying in bed. Last week I finally bit the bullet and made an appointment to see a knee doctor. I figured I’d better make the appointment now before I’m forced into an HMO Medicare policy.