Old Lady Knee

It all started with apartment hunting. Finding a place to live from 1,600 miles away is no easy task, but that's exactly what I set out to do two years ago. What we settled on was a two story townhouse in the High Desert district of Albuquerque. What I loved about it was the neighborhood, the proximity to most of the good stuff in Albuquerque, and the garage. What I never anticipated hating so much was the stairs. I grew up in a house with stairs, but this place was different. Both bathrooms and both of the bedrooms (including the nursery with changing table) were upstairs. After only a couple of months in the apartment, my knee had already started to crunch and crackle. By the time Christmas came around and it was time to fly back to Tennessee for a family visit, one of the things I was most looking forward to was getting a break from the stairs.

When we were still in Albuquerque, I went to a pcp doctor, who did x-rays, said he didn't see any arthritis, and said I probably had a hiking injury... from the stairs.

I didn't worry about it much since I thought that moving back into our one story house would solve the problem.

...But here I am about nine months later feeling more symptomatic. I've given up on exercise. Putting weight on the knee during yoga is painful, and an experimental run this spring had me sore for a week.

When I had the cyst removed from my wrist, I also talked to that orthopedist about the knee. He put me in physical therapy and did an injection of kenalog in the knee, which didn't help. Making no improvement, I finally requested to see someone in the same practice who specializes in knees. This guy did another set of x-rays, which showed nothing. He then sent me to have an MRI, which showed three things: edema (swelling), inflammation, and the beginning of arthritis. Pretty much everything on the inside of my knee is either swollen or inflamed. Well, that explains a lot.

He seems to think I can get back to running and yoga soon, which is my ultimate goal. To get me there, he did another steroid injection in the knee, prescribed different physical therapy, and ordered me to ice my knee every night.

Why am I telling you this? I'm frustrated. I hate that I put so much effort into being a healthy eater but I still feel like an inactive, flabby slug. And my knee has been killing me since last night. As in crippling, can-hardly-walk pain. Dr. Google says it's a steroid flare, which might be a good thing since this didn't happen with the injection that didn't help. And arthritis. Are you kidding me? I like to think of myself as young, and this does not bode well for the future. Ugh.

Running in the evenings after the kids go to sleep, yoga during nap time - heck, taking the kids to the zoo without needing to ice my knee for a couple of hours afterwards - maybe I'll get there soon.