Sometime around November or December I started experiencing pain in my left knee. First I thought it was “old age” creeping up on me. But later found after x-rays and a MRI I had a combination of arthritis and a horizontal cleavage tear in the body of the meniscus. I have been asked no less the twenty times, “how did you do that”? I don’t know, is my standard reply. What I did find out was the tear usually begins in the inner aspect of the body of the meniscus after a minor injury, followed by a degenerative process which starts in the damaged area. No matter how I did it, the process was started and the meniscus was split into top and bottom sections. Then as I continued my research, I find that a horizontal cleavage tears usually occur in older individuals. So it is old age creeping up on me.
Which brings me to the culprit causing the most pain in my knee—arthritis. So I start researching arthritis. This is what I found. I don’t have arthritis, I have Osteoarthritis. Also, called wear-and-tear arthritis or degenerative joint disease, osteoarthritis is characterized by progressive wearing away of the cartilage of the joint. As the protective cartilage is worn away by knee arthritis, bare bone is exposed within the joint. So I wanted to know, who are the people that develop knee arthritis? Well, people over 50 years of age---now I know it is old age creeping up on me. But they can’t just stop there; they add that it is more common in patients who are overweight. That means not only has my age contributed to my knee injury and pain, but my weight as well.
I was really feeling down at this point. Not only do I need surgery, I need to reduce my weight as well. As I got to thinking about this, I had a sudden brilliant thought, it is time to throw out all non-essential numbers in my life and this includes age, weight and height. How am I over weight if no one knows my height? I had someone guess my weight just recently and he was 45 pounds off—on the light side. So the surgery will take care of the horizontal cleavage tear in the body of the meniscus, I will throw out all non-essential numbers and the old age will help me to forget that some think I am over weight. Nice politically correct people would never say I was overweight, they would not want to damage my self-esteem.
I have always thought the advice of my grandfather was good when he said, “Remember fat dogs don’t hunt and they stay around the house.” You can put your interpretation to it, but I know what he was talking about.
So, here I am, 3:30 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, about 15 hours after surgery wide awake feeling no pain. All the medication has worn off and I have come to the realization that old age is not creeping up on me, it has been here for some time and it is not for sissies.
Thanks to everyone you prayed, wished me luck, called to see how I am doing and the offers to take me to the hospital. It is a blessing to have caring people who surround you in “old age.”
Which brings me to the culprit causing the most pain in my knee—arthritis. So I start researching arthritis. This is what I found. I don’t have arthritis, I have Osteoarthritis. Also, called wear-and-tear arthritis or degenerative joint disease, osteoarthritis is characterized by progressive wearing away of the cartilage of the joint. As the protective cartilage is worn away by knee arthritis, bare bone is exposed within the joint. So I wanted to know, who are the people that develop knee arthritis? Well, people over 50 years of age---now I know it is old age creeping up on me. But they can’t just stop there; they add that it is more common in patients who are overweight. That means not only has my age contributed to my knee injury and pain, but my weight as well.
I was really feeling down at this point. Not only do I need surgery, I need to reduce my weight as well. As I got to thinking about this, I had a sudden brilliant thought, it is time to throw out all non-essential numbers in my life and this includes age, weight and height. How am I over weight if no one knows my height? I had someone guess my weight just recently and he was 45 pounds off—on the light side. So the surgery will take care of the horizontal cleavage tear in the body of the meniscus, I will throw out all non-essential numbers and the old age will help me to forget that some think I am over weight. Nice politically correct people would never say I was overweight, they would not want to damage my self-esteem.
I have always thought the advice of my grandfather was good when he said, “Remember fat dogs don’t hunt and they stay around the house.” You can put your interpretation to it, but I know what he was talking about.
So, here I am, 3:30 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, about 15 hours after surgery wide awake feeling no pain. All the medication has worn off and I have come to the realization that old age is not creeping up on me, it has been here for some time and it is not for sissies.
Thanks to everyone you prayed, wished me luck, called to see how I am doing and the offers to take me to the hospital. It is a blessing to have caring people who surround you in “old age.”
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