Iroknee

SUMMARY: OK, that's pronounced like "irony" except that "iron-knee" gives the wrong impression, because it isn't, it's a mess.

Ah, yes, She-Who-Will-Be-Tempted-By-Irony must have been reading my blog about The Big Hole In The Ground, because, yes, my knee is hosed.

I have this waterfall-pond thing in my yard that I must periodically suction gunk from so that it continues to look beautiful. I do this with a little manual suctioner, with which I kneel by or on the pond edge for, I dunno, maybe 5 minutes once or twice a week to do the cleaning. With the clouds keeping the sun off it (less algae), the rain (flushing things out regularly), and the cold (dogs don't need to get into it to cool off as often), it hasn't needed sucking out in a few weeks.

Yesterday was a lovely sunny day and I could see the gunk accrued, lurking on the bottom, begging to be suctioned. So I did the same thing I've been doing for years. Except, when I then tried to stand up, I discovered that my knee had frozen into an agonizing rusted-shut mess. It hurt like Brittney Spears to stand. I almost couldn't put weight on it.

I hobbled into the house. Iced it. Took a couple of ibuprofen. Waited. Iced. Took a couple more (4 is prescription-level relief per my doctor for when I need it). Iced. Waited. By bedtime, I could still barely walk. Moving it at all caused me to yelp.

I tried sleeping, but it throbbed throbbed throbbed, and of course every time I'd start to doze off, I'd move slightly, and wake with a pained yelp. This is not fun. In case you were wondering.

At 3:30 I hobbled yelpingly into the bathroom to see whether I might still have vicodin left over from December 2006 (post-knee surgery). This wasn't a decision made lightly--I mean getting out of bed and trying to walk-- because walking really hurt. I did have some left, and it hadn't even expired yet. Don't like what it does to me otherwise, but my knee really needed it.

Also decided to brave the misery of descending the stairs to ice the bejeesus out of the knee some more. Still hurt like heck to get back upstairs. Still didn't fall asleep till 5:30.

It is marginally better this morning, but whether to take a step somewhere is still a major life decision. And I'm supposed to drive to Mountain View later this morning for a meeting. No more vicodin for me until later today. AND I have my only remaining weekly agility class tonight.

Sigh.