My Own Worst Enemy

I hate being down!! Yep, my right knee hurts and my left hip is killing me, but I'd rather be on my own 2 feet and doing what I want to do, when I want to do it. Unfortunately, the Prednisone, added to the big Tylenol pills I took at the ER, gave me the illusion that things were not "that" bad, so I overdid and paid the price. Sat/Sun/Mon have been spent stationary.

Not being allowed to take pain pills makes it more challenging to deal with both the swelling and the pain. Ice packs and heating pads are great at the time, but there are no lasting effects from either treatment. Away from the heating pad, my hip begins to throb; away from the ice, it begins to seize. At the same time, my feet are blocks of ice. I dream at night of floating weightless in a really warm tub of water, but there is no getting in and/or getting out of a bathtub at this time.

Yes, I am complaining, but also praying that I have the knee surgery, no hitches, and can at least get past one of the current issues. I've read about hip replacement, which is basically the ball socket, and while I believe that will help with my left side issues, it will not address the area in the pelvis located right at the spinal column. That's where the pain is radiating from "stirring up the arthritis," and I didn't see a quick fix for that particular situation.

The final straw is the rain. My dogs don't like the rain; however, Mia will go outside to potty, while Daisy will run from one room in the house to another and back again, finding a hidden spot to dump her loads, rather than go outside. Late last evening, I donned my rain gear and walked with them into the yard to do their business. Both dogs reluctantly trotted alongside me, then sat next to me as the rain dampened all 3 of us. When I realized they were not going to relieve themselves, I brought them back inside as I was now cold and wet.

Dotter and I put them in the garage for the night, with lots of thick towels on the floor, as well as their favorite floor pillows and Daisy's afghan. I'm not sure how happy that made either dog, but I enjoyed waking up and not wading through a pool of pee dotted with brown accents in the middle of the living room floor!!

The good news is that dotter baked the cookies and is a genius at making festive trays of Christmas cheer. We had a long list of people for whom the cookies were an annual treat, but plans have changed for some, so we may end up not just with a bulging box of See's candy, but some really large tins filled with cookies. We do have some company coming, so we'll hope that they are cookie eaters. She has also been preparing delicious healthy meals and not just making me eat, but filling me up so I don't graze. Sugar may be the enemy, but it makes life seems better for the time it takes to consume a Christmas cookie!

That's it until after the surgery. I believe these past 5 days would have been a whole lot better had I not fallen and hurt myself, but maybe I needed to slow down and get lots of rest before the knee surgery, which I would not have done had I still been standing on my own 2 feet. In many instances, I am my own worst enemy and keep going until I literally cannot take another step, so perhaps I can work on slowing down before the damage is done, rather than after it's too late.

It's a good theory, but ... we'll see how it works for me.