Two Steps Forward
I thought I had finally done it. I had finally reached a point where my meds were mostly correct, I had no pressing health situation, and I felt damn good. I was walking four miles a day and eating better. I thought I had finally found my eye in the storm. Then my knee started hurting. I iced it and put heat on it and rested it and did all the things, but it was not getting better. So I went to the orthopedic urgent care. They said I have a torn meniscus.. They gave me a brace and set me up with an MRI.
Fortunately,, the MRI came back showing no damage to the meniscus or any other part of the knee. The swelling and pain came from a build up of fluid. This was a great relief. As crazy as it sounds, for the past week, a tiny part of my brain had kept worrying that the MRI would reveal a tumor.
So the doctor drained the knee and gave me a cortisone shot. I was really nervous I was going to throw up. I have a history of puking in situations involving needles But I concentrated on my breathing and held it together. The knee felt immediately better. It will take a week or so to get it up to 100%, but this was the best possible outcome.
I know that if I say that in a week I'll be feeling great and ready to take on the world, some other injury or illness will pop up, so I'm not jinxing it. I'm going to enjoy the fact that, even know this hurt like hell and it has been driving me crazy being so immobile, it has a quick and relatively easy fix. I am not known for my patience, but I'm going to be patient.I'll hold off on shopping for a tandem bike. I'm going to follow the doctors advice and increase my dog Haiku's daily walks gradually. I'm going to take one step at a time, literally and figuratively.