On getting older

Friday I took a vacation day, for something being done in the condo. I was up early, tidying up, when a good friend called. We chatted for quite a while, and after I hung up, I went back to tidying.

I'd sat down to do some sorting in the living room. When I got up out of the chair, I felt a sharp, piercing pain in my right knee, almost enough to floor me. Yikes.

This has happened once or twice before over the last several months, and it generally clears up with ten minutes of sitting still and cursing softly under my breath.

Well, the cursing may not actually have a direct impact on the healing, but it makes me feel better emotionally. This time, however, the pain didn't go completely away. Note that through this, driving actually felt fine - no pain at all. Thankfully, it's my right leg, not needed to push in the rather stiff clutch.

As long as I stay still, I'm fine. But putting weight on it is a tricky business. About one step in four feels fine. The rest bring back the shooting pain.

I managed to get through the condo business, which necessitated me vacating the premises for a couple of hours. I went to Panera, which thankfully has order-from and deliver-to table service. By the time I'd finished lunch, I'd resigned myself to going to the urgent care, which is considerably closer to where I live than my doctor's office.

I'd had a horrific experience at this urgent care several years ago (hence taking several hours to decide to finally go), but this time was much, much more pleasant.

At least as pleasant as it can be to find out you have severe arthritis in your knee.

I'm assuming that if one knee is like this, the other is as well. Apparently, it's possible for the pain I'm experiencing now (possibly a ligament hung up on one of the arthritis-induced bone spurs) will resolve on its own. I do need to see an orthopedist, who can assess the current state more thoroughly and recommend lasting treatment. As I understand it, the first line is steroid injections. Eventually, I'm assuming I'll need knee replacements.

Thank heaven for Amazon Prime and same day delivery; I was able to order and receive a cane (!) today. The nurse practitioner suggested it, though I'm not sure I'll use it except outside the house. There was a purple version available, but I'm not quite well adjusted enough yet to have fun with this.

In short, I feel old. Really old. There are so many things I'd wanted to get done this weekend, and I can't do much of any of them. In fact, I spent much of the day in the recliner with my leg up and iced. That wouldn't have bothered me, except for two things. One, just sitting is always chilly, but every single quilt and blanket on the first floor was in the basement, waiting to be washed. Every.single.one. I'd not thought to put socks on before I came downstairs, and did not have the oomph to withstand the pain of coming down the steps (up feels fine) just for socks.

Two, I seriously think the new ISP is choking off my download speed. All three streaming services keep cutting out the show to reload, on both roku players downstairs. The range extender doesn't seem to be getting much of a signal. Even upstairs, right next to the router and connected directly to the primary network, my kindle is taking an hour to download something that should take five minutes. Yes, I'm stuck in a chair with no access to electronic entertainment. There is a stack of real books next to the recliner, but it still sucks not being able to watch a movie.

Yeah, feeling both old and sorry for myself.