Sunday, December 12, 2010

Desperate times call for desperate measures

It happens nearly every day now. I take a step, and the pain shoots through my body like lightening. I've been feeling this on the left leg now for more than 15 years. I was getting used to this. Until I started feeling it on the right leg. The "good" leg The leg that I could count on bearing me up stairs.

Osteoarthritis of the knees brought on by weak ankles and life long wear on the cartilage between tibia and fibia bones. I wear orthodics. I wear knee braces. Both are very unsexy.

And now that both knees are done, the back is on tender notice: I pulled it lifting a simple basket of laundry.

Last Sunday, I laid in bed for a whole day. Afraid to move. I suppose I could have forced myself to just live with pain. But I decided instead to give myself a pity party. And invited no one else to join me. Not even the dog. Laundry went undone. Shopping lists unmade. Family organization in disarray. We simply can't live this way.

Dr. McHunky gave me a nice cortisone shot last summer. And while I loved the eventual relief, it was short lasting. The second opinion doctor said the same thing, "you're too young for knee replacement"

So while I'm young and not only want to move, but need to move, I need to take more progressive action. As I wait for the insurance to clear synvisc injections, in went back to my GP for a sincere heart to heart. I'm 45 years old. I weigh 180 pounds. My BMI is 31. By government and my own standards I'm obese. 20 more pounds, and I'll be the same weight I was before I gave birth to twins. I will not need a walker before I turn 50.

As I need to pay out my flex spending dollars, the good doctor (v. grateful for this) prescribed visits to an alternative physical therapy recommended by a Twitter friend, Jenny Craig, and a new weight loss medicine.

I'll be blogging on all three options.

I started my first pill this morning. I'm a good candidate for it, because my blood pressure is low. I hope it doesn't t make me a nervous wreck. Heck, it might even give me some fake energy to get through the to-do list I've been too tired or apathetic to attack.

I start Jenny Craig up later this week. Just in time for the holidays. Oh joy.

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