The journey begins

And prayers are appreciated!

This was me in 2008. At one time in my life I was a 5K race walker locally, which is likely part of the reason why I need knee replacements 17 years later. (Sad to say, I’m probably 80-90 pounds heavier as well.)

If I can beg your indulgence for a personal post…

It’s a train I knew was coming, but when I realized it had arrived it was still a shock.

For about the last three years I have been getting treatment for my arthritic knees: first cortisone shots, then Synvisc earlier this summer. Unfortunately, they have been getting weaker from just age and years of abuse: overweight, power walking on the regular for several years when I moved down here, heaving the 16 pound rock every Tuesday or Friday night on a weekly basis for many years during bowling season, and even the softball I played as a young man probably didn’t help. Add in a family history of arthritis on my mom’s side and I was likely on this road, which I first began noticing in 2020 with how my knees were so sore the morning after bowling.

Now I tried to be strong over the last few years until my left knee couldn’t take any more. I quit bowling after COVID, and once I began treatment for my knees I would take things a bit easier. (Maybe a little too easy.) But when I can’t go to a ballgame because the pain of walking is too much, you know it’s bad. My wife (who is a registered nurse) finally laid down the law: I needed a knee brace and a walker to get around because a fall could lead to a broken bone. I had a fall earlier this summer when my knee gave out; luckily I was getting in the car so I could ease my way down. All I hurt was my pride. I may not have been so lucky when I tripped over the dog bed a few weeks ago.

My original orthopedic doctor told me he wouldn’t do a knee replacement until I got my BMI down to 40, but I’ve seen morbidly obese people who had knee replacements. Perhaps they regained the weight they had lost. (The second one wanted me to undergo bariatric surgery first, which seemed ridiculous to me. I would have to go through all this pre-op protocol with a dietician, shrink, etc. and then still need to lose the weight afterward.) Finally, as it was explained to me on Thursday by the third specialist I’ve seen, the weight isn’t as much a factor for him as my edema is. Yes, I have Hillary-style cankles and therein lies the big problem. All that fluid is just an infection waiting to happen and that isn’t good with a metal knee in there.

My hopes of having a quick knee replacement dashed, it’s time for me to get serious about losing weight - he thought about 50 pounds should do the trick because it would help with the edema. (More would be better, but that’s sort of a bare minimum.) As you can see in the photo above, I once was relatively healthy but unfortunately I probably can’t take phentermine anymore. (I took it for about 2-3 years, in combination with walking two miles a day and riding my bike the same distance. That was back in my single again days when my knees were functional and I hadn’t met that nasty Ritis brother, Arthur.)

In the meantime, though, I’m sort of stuck with a walker to get around and a brace on my knee. After consulting with my personal physician next week, it’s likely I’ll be put on one of those semaglutide medications to help with the weight loss. (It sure beats the surgery route.) I’ll also have to sadly cut out some of my bad habits, like peanut M & M’s. (My wife said, “you can have 10” but I’d rather either have a whole couple full cups of them or none at all.) I am also consulting physical therapy to look for help there with the issue.

My hope is that I’ll have shaved off enough weight and worked through the edema enough to have this done by year’s end. This is really cramping my style because I can’t enjoy Shorebird games with the risk of falling and lugging this walker around is tiring, as I’m finding out just using it around home and work. (Luckily I work in a single-story office, but it’s also a PITA to get it in the truck.)

But I know God has a plan for me, so I guess I have to make the most of this. Writing about it has been good therapy. Next week I’ll get back to regular stuff, like the local election that I talked about last month.

Until next time, remember you can Buy Me a Coffee since I have a page there.