2018 Life Logs, Day 352: Pain, No Pain
Date: Tuesday, December 18, 2018
Weather: Snow Overnight, Sunny and Windy Today; High 38, Low 21 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
The of what causes my left knee to be fine one minute and totally disabled the next continues. But last night was the most dramatic happening. As I wrote in my log last night, the pain in the back of my knee returned yesterday afternoon causing me to have to use crutches to walk. At bedtime, I gathered my things and headed back to the bedroom on crutches. After three trips from living room to bedroom, I had everything I needed, but then I realized I hadn’t called my sister. My brother-in-law is in the hospital with his own strange medical mysteries, so I wanted to talk to my sister to see how her day went. I sat on the edge of the rocking chair in my bedroom while I talked and when the conversation ended, I got up to go to bed. No pain. Absolutely no pain in my knee. I had only been sitting there for 15 minutes and had done nothing else that would made the pain go away. This made no sense, but I enjoyed a good night’s sleep and woke up this morning, still with no pain. I had a 10:20 am appointment with my orthopedic surgeon’s assistant and when I told him the story he was also puzzled. He ordered x-rays so he could compare today’s knee to that on November 1 just after my Halloween Night fall. When we looked at the x-rays together, he pointed out that one of the bone spurs on my knee on November 1 is no longer there. And then he pointed out a small foreign object floating about in my knee cavity and suggested it was probably that bone spur. His best guess is that it gets lodged in just the wrong place, presses on a nerve and causes pain, and then dislodges and moves on leaving me pain free. I’m not sure I buy this theory because the pain I had yesterday was identical to the pain on the night of the fall and that bone spur was still attached to my knee at that point. The medical assistant asked if I wanted pain pills. No. He said it would be best if I could knee surgery right now, but that is probably not going to happen as scheduling is set months in advance. So, my only option is to keep those crutches close at hand so I can use them when the pain returns that doesn’t allow me to straighten my leg. The only good news was that he doesn’t feel that anything that has happened will impact recovery after the knee surgery. So I hobble on.
Otherwise, it was not a very eventful day. I drove to Woods Hole to pick Ollie up after a mid-day dentist appointment and took him back to school. When I got home, Peter and Karen Baranowski dropped by to visit for a bit and then it was time to go pick Jonah and Ollie up after school. Tonight, I baked some cranberry bread to give as gifts and will spend tomorrow making a list and checking it twice to make sure I have all Christmas gifts under control. I know of two things I need to out to buy tomorrow, but after checking the list, there may be more. Then tomorrow night I travel with the Goldstones to New Bedford to go to a Celtic Sojourn. I am really looking forward to that.
