Yard work. Stepped in mole trace. Three loud POPs, excruciating pain… Yep. ACL. Again. Crawled back into the house. Ice packs, loads of ibuprofen and acetaminophen (they work well together and are safe in low, OTC doses), wraps and a cane. Manageable. In a few weeks, just the knee brace will be enough, and after a few months I’ll only wear the knee brace for yard work and such like.
Again. Oh. Well. I guess I ought to set my calendar by my Spring events, spaced every six years or so–just long enough for me to start being careless again. *heh*
The unkindest injury of all (the self-inflicted kind :-)).
First apologies to The Bard for mangling his “unkindest cut of all” (Marc Antony in Julius Caesar) comment. What can I say? He won’t mind, being long fled from this mortal coil. (Again with the apologies; you and I know The Bard’s construction was “shuffle off this mortal coil”. )
No surgery? No. I’ve had my fill of that stuff. “Pain is just weakness leaving the body,” as someone said. I don’t believe it, but that’s what I tell my Wonder Woman. 😉
Ouchie. Mend soon.
Thanks, Nicole. “Soon” is a relative term with this injury (to the same knee, again–will I never learn? *heh*). Actually, I expect that with proper support and lots of care (warm compacts for a while after all the icing, good knee brace/wraps, cane and careful foot placement for a while), it may get better as quickly as when I was younger… almost. And indeed, I believe I may be able to go back to sleep soon, as the pain meds (non-narcotic analgesic/anti-inflamatory, NSAID and non NSAID) kick in again. 😉
I don’t envy you and having to go through the exercise program that will be required in order to restore that knee to full pain free use. I had to do it many years ago to avoid surgery and it brought tears to my eyes three times a day for twenty minutes.
Yep. BTDT. 🙂 Even though it’s a tad early for the real exercises, I’ve started some of the minor flexes and stretches already. Painful, but necessary. “[F]ull pain free use” isn’t going to be an option, I fear, if past experience is any guide. Nearly full, less painful use is my more reasonable goal (I’ll probably never do any more rock climbing, for example, on an unreliable knee, but then I haven’t done any since the first ACL injury years ago. Heck, even tennis is a bit more and even a braced knee “wants” to do, although I had gotten back to vigorous walks and light jogging.)
I just have to accept it as part of the limitations of becoming a genuine Olde Pharte.