A Shot of Cortisone for My Knee

A shot of tequila for the rest of me.

A couple of months ago, the knee I had surgery on in 2009 started hurting---a lot. So off I went to my orthopedist. He took x-rays. He prescribed physical therapy, Voltarin and ice.

I did everything I was supposed to do, and was discharged from pt two weeks early, with a perfectly pain-free knee. I continued my exercises, went to a gym, and my wonderful knee lasted......two weeks. That was it.

So here I go again. I studied the knee chart in the exam room while I waited for the doctor and after that lengthy and comprehensive course of study, I diagnosed bursitis of the knee.

The doctor came in and suggested that I am wrong. Torn meniscus (again) maybe. Torn cartilage, maybe. Degenerative arthritis, maybe. He said he could tell more from an autopsy.

No, he didn't say that. I may have watched too many episodes of NCIS. He said that he could tell more from an MRI, which is scheduled for next Tuesday, with a follow up on Thursday.

In the meantime, I'm counting on the cortisone to reduce or eliminate the pain, so I can party while the grandchildren are still here.

And there is always more tequila.

Which of These Things Is Not Like the Others?

OK, so this doesn't work when there are only two things, but do you see a problem here??? Well, I do. But I didn't until I was one row away from starting the toe decreases on sock two.

Take a good look at the heels (oops, one sock is upside down):















Yup. For some reason, I switched back to the striping yarn before I turned the heel on sock #2. But I didn't notice until way, way too late, unless I wanted to frog the whole foot, which I didn't. These socks have been a series of mistakes from the very beginning of sock #1.
Mistake #1: I don't remember what it was, but I had to start over fairly soon after beginning.
Mistake #2: I picked up the OTN sock and enthusiastically started knitting. Many rows later I noticed something odd. There was a hole, and the brown striping zigged when it should have zagged. Ooops, a short row. I didn't realize I had knitted in the wrong direction. Ribbit, ribbit...
Mistake #3: The yarn is called Paca-Ped HT. The HT, of course, means "heel" and "toe." So I just used the solid brown yarn as reinforcing yarn for the heel flap. At the time, I did wonder why the reinforcement yarn was a solid color, and why it was as thick as the sock yarn. Well, I tell you, it made for one thick, sturdy heel. Duh. It was for contrasting heels and toes, just like the picture on the yarn label!!!!! Frogged it.

So on sock #2, I was destined to do something wrong. Today after I discovered my mistake, I took the pair, with #2 still OTN, to my LYS. My knitter friends there said that since the socks were not a gift, I should just leave them as is. They reminded me that The Yarn Harlot says that there are no knitting police. If there were, I think that they might take away my needles. However, in my defense, I started these months ago, just before I damaged my knee and needed surgery. Also, my thumb has been in a brace forEVER and that doesn't help any.

Some people say that the yarn tells you what to do, and I believe this yarn was telling me to just, for Dog's sake, finish and go on to something else. So I am...

Why I Hate Having Surgery

Yes, I know, no one likes having surgery. But today's activities made me remember more reasons why I don't like it. It took four hours to go through all the pre-op routines at two different places. The surgery will take about a half an hour. There is no logic to this.

And I had to sign a whole bunch of forms saying it's ok if they somehow maim, paralyze or kill me. I had to say that it is ok for them to do whatever they want with any body parts, including limbs, that they take during surgery. I hope they don't need any organs or limbs for transplant that day. Maybe that's not what they had in mind...

All of this for what is supposed to be quick, minor routine surgery to fix two tears in the mensicus in my right knee. At least I have lots of knitting projects for the recovery period. :-)