Do you ever lie in bed at night and make a mental inventory of what hurts? Tonight I’m lying here and it’s both knees ( more on that a moment), my right hip ( which I’ve diagnosed through Dr. Google as my gluteus medius muscle, )

my right wrist (DeQuervain’s tenosynovitis—once again, thank you Dr. Google)

and my head. It feels like my temples are being squeezed. I am grateful that tonight neither of my feet hurt, but that’s probably because I spent the last 10 hours sitting in my recliner with the footrest up.

For the last several months, I’ve been having a lot of pain in both of my knees. The more active I am, the more they hurt. And getting up from a seated position is really difficult, and I stand at the top of my basement stairs and wonder, “Do I really need to go down there?”

We went to the Fox Theater a couple of months ago to see Les Misérables. The Fox is a wonderful venue with tons of history. (You can read more about it here). But the seats don’t provide very much leg room, and after sitting for 90 minutes through the first act, I couldn’t stand up. I just couldn’t get my knees to straighten up, and having a seat close to the aisle, I was holding up all the women who wanted to get out so they could stand for the entire intermission in the snaking line to the ladies’ restroom. The lines for the TSA got nothing on the lines for the ladies’ rooms at the Fox.

A couple of months ago, I finally decided to make a doctor’s appointment about my knees. I had to wait a couple of weeks to see my Primary Care physician. I really like her. She’s very down to earth and really listens to what I have to say. She first suggested physical therapy, but when I told her I felt that I was spending money on exercises I could do at home, she agreed to send me a list. The list contains all the exercises I’ve already been doing, either at home or in the class I take at the Rec Plex. I waited a month and emailed her again and requested a referral to an Orthopedic Doctor. The Ortho’s office called within a few days and I made an appointment for six weeks away.

The closer the appointment date came, the more I fretted about seeing a new doctor. I had it in my head that my pain was a muscular problem with weak quads and/or IT band (Iliotibial band syndrome is a common overuse injury causing sharp or burning pain on the outside of the knee, typically in runners and cyclists, caused by the band rubbing against bone), that I almost cancelled the appointment.

See, about twenty years ago, when I very first started having problems with my left knee, I went to see the orthopedic surgeon who had done both my tennis elbow surgeries. I don’t remember the first appointment, but I’ve never forgotten the second one.

I was sitting on the exam table when he walked in carrying my chart (way before charting was done on a computer). He looked at my chart, then looked at me and said “I told you, you just need to lose some weight and get more exercise.” With that, he turned and walked out of the room, leaving both his nurse and me with our mouths hanging open. He scarred me for life and I’m not talking about the scars on my elbows.

I left his office in tears and immediately called another Orthopedic doctor and explained the situation and the receptionist assured me that they could help me. Luckily, this was back “in the day” when I could choose my own doctors and didn’t have to worry about being in a network. I saw this doctor and he suggested that he do a scope on my knee. He did and cleaned up a bunch of junk, and it was good to go for another ten years.

Fast forward to about ten years ago, and I was walking down the basement stairs. I took two steps and it felt like my left knee had exploded. Luckily, I didn’t fall down the stairs, but I was able to sit down and eventually scoot up to the top of the stairs. I immediately went to the Urgent Care at the Ortho doc’s office, who had seen me before, and after some hesitation on their part, I was ordered an MRI. Turned out I had torn my meniscus and again, after I nixed the idea that “maybe time would heal it”, I had surgery to repair it. All has been good…up until recently.

When I got to the Ortho appointment, I had x-rays taken of both knees. I was sure he’d say it was all muscular and I needed exercise, blah, blah, blah, but he didn’t. He showed me the X-rays that show significant damage to the left knee and not quite so much to my right knee. He said there were several options we could consider, the first of which were cortisone injections, followed by gel injections (viscosupplementation) and further down the line, a knee replacement if necessary. He assured me my knee was not at that point now.

I agreed to the cortisone injections, knowing how much it had hurt me a couple of years ago after Millie had run into my knee and knocked me down. And, it didn’t disappoint. OMG. I don’t know of much of anything that hurts more than cortisone injections. He put me on a three-month regimen of injections and when I told him we were planning a trip to Portugal next year, he said to be sure and schedule an injection a week or so in advance because we would be doing a lot of walking and said he didn’t think my knee would be at a point by then that I would need a knee replacement.

All was good on my way home and for about half the time I was walking around Sam’s. Suddenly my right knee started hurting really bad, and by the time I left there, I was limping. It definitely didn’t get any better the rest of the day and Great Hunter was actually waiting on me and prepared both our lunch and dinner (sandwiches, but beggars can’t be choosers). I sat for the rest of the day in my recliner with the footrest up and luckily by about 10:00 p.m., I started feeling better.

This morning I’m feeling almost better than I was before the injections and lucky too, as I had agreed to go with my daughter-in-law to help my grandson move out of his dorm and come home for the school year.