Confession

I have a confession to make. Brace yourselves.  


      I had a total knee replacement. 

There - it's out in the open for everyone to know. 

Yep, I'm an official card carrying Total Knee Replacement (TKR) person.  

I haven't kept it a secret. My family and I were pretty open about it when I had the knee replacement five years ago. 

My grandkids and I look at it this way. I have a fake knee. I'm like Super Man where my fake knee is. Go ahead - hit my knee as hard as you want. It isn't going to bother me.  They used to tell their friends, 'Go ahead and hit her as hard as you can. It won't hurt her." 

I set alarms off in airports and courthouse security lines. Yes, I have to be pulled aside EVERY time and patted down or wanded. 

Yes, there are things I cannot do now that I used to. Crawling on my hands and knees is one of them. Don't know why - but it is not being done with a fake knee. 

I had the surgery - was violently sick (surgery always makes me sick).  I couldn't get out of bed for 3 days because I was so sick. 

There is a machine you use after knee surgery to help with movement. I loved this machine!!  Someone straps you in and turns it on and it automatically pulls your leg up and bends your knee over and over. You have a schedule to follow for this. Just keeping the schedule fills a large part of your day. I slept so well when the machine was bending my knee.  Wish I could have one permanently.  


I did my exercises.

I  walked with a walker. 

I graduated to a cane! 

I went to therapy for weeks and weeks. You know therapy is bad when even the therapist says, 'Now for the torture exercise.'

Why did I have knee replacement? I have bad knees.  I have bad joints. I have no cartilage. All very good reasons. What prompted the surgery? I thought I needed to try the cardboard slide my friend and I had made at church for Fall Festival. Needed to be certain it was safe for the kids. 

Probably not one of the wisest decisions I've made. But I'd do it again.  

Now, why the confession?  

Because people are all the time saying, "But you don't walk with a limp!"

No, most of the time I do not walk with a limp. Catch me on a bad day, or late in the day, or a series of bad weather days and you are more apt to see me limp. It is what it is. 

So there you have it - my confession. Not sure why people think that a knee replacement automatically means you will be limping for the rest of your life. And who knows, maybe when I finally go get the other one replaced I will have a noticeable limp.