"Pain and Suffering"

 

            The final week of May, while mopping, I stepped back onto a slick spot and fell. Actually, I did a slow motion slip and slide that twisted my left knee as I went down. Water spewed over the kitchen floor and doused me entirely. I sat in frustrated sogginess and complained loudly as I sopped up the mess. By evening, all I needed was a couple of Tylenol to ease the pain. The next morning, my knee didn’t nag at me one single bit.

            For the next week, I knelt to pull weeds and rebuild our fire pit. I raked leaves from both yards and filled half-a-dozen bags. I detailed both of our cars inside and out, which meant hauling out the ladder and going up-and-down-up-and-down-up-and-down since I’m too short to reach the tops of either car. I added a thirty minute walk to my daily routine because the gyms were closed indefinitely.

            Almost a week to the day of my undignified mopping fail, I decided to do an extra-long walk through our neighborhood. The morning’s light filtered through trees softly. Many spring flowers lingered in neighbor’s gardens, and roses scented the air. I meandered at a slower pace as I rounded the corner of one street to enter the final stretch of my stroll. I took one step down and heard a soft pfffft from my left knee. I stepped one time into excruciating pain. I eased onto my right foot and attempted another left leg tread. Severe pain seared through me, and I ungracefully lowered to the ground. I knew immediately not to put any more weight on my knee. Instead, I called my husband. Fortunately, he’s now working remotely and could rush to my side. I love our neighborhood! Within two minutes, a concerned lady stopped her car and offered aid, or at least to sit with me until David arrived. As I could already see his car, I waved her on.

            My knee, as I sat on the ground, didn’t hurt. I assured David, when he arrived, that it couldn’t be that bad because it already felt better. Using David as a crutch, I attempted to put the slightest amount of weight on my knee. The pain returned tenfold!

            David carried me into the house from the car, we did a quick Google search on what needed to be done to immediately for my knee, and I began RICE for an entire week followed by a second week of heat instead of ice on my knee. At first, I needed help with everything. I repurposed a small, wheeled office chair into a temporary wheelchair to make it into the bathroom. For two weeks, I tried my best to keep all weight off of my knee. I didn’t go to a clinic because I already had my annual checkup scheduled with my doctor. I decided that if my knee still looked bad after two weeks, she’d decide the next step.

            Exactly two weeks from the injury, I hobbled into the doctor’s office wearing a brace I’d used from a previous tumble (down the stairs at work years ago). On the examining table, the PA moved my knee in every possible direction, all without pain! My residual discomfort only happened when I put weight on my knee. She advised me to make “slow and steady” my new mantra. The knee probably has arthritis. The twisting fall followed by a week of major chores and long walks simply made it scream, “No more!”

            The pace proved to be extremely slow and steady. If I kept my knee bent too long while sitting at my computer, it whined. I couldn’t water the entire back yard without wearing a brace—and then could only do half of it before needing to sit down. At the three month mark, I finally put away the brace and compression sleeve I relied on heavily for months. I rolled up the ACE wrap, used nightly, and shifted back to sleeping without a pillow under my knee. Every day, I find myself able to do something more or longer than the day before. The other night, I realized that I sat on the couch with my knee bent, tucked under me. I shifted it immediately, but felt smug satisfaction that I have that range of motion back.

            I set a goal for next week to walk down the street to the STOP sign and circle back. That’s only five houses down and then back. It will be the longest trek I’ll have done since June. Once I accomplish that small feat for a week, I’ll try to make it around our block as it offers enough of a slope to get a full picture of my recovery.

            During all of this pain and suffering, my admiration has grown for friends and family members who truly suffer on a daily basis with conditions that won’t go away by gentling your routine for a few months. I marvel at their strength and endurance as they face each day.

 

Copyright 2020 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman