Knee Problems

I've been having some problems lately with my right knee. I have been having trouble stooping, bending down, and going up and down stairs. I just thought I was getting older and not being as flexible as I used to be, although it did hurt quite a bit when I did those things. Eddie saw me having trouble getting up and down one day and heard me yell "Ow!" several times, and he said I needed to go to the doctor. Insisted, in fact. Well, I really didn't want to go. I mainly went to appease him, so I wouldn't have to hear about it anymore. Anyway, the orthopedic doctor took x-rays and examined my knee. It turns out that I may have a torn ligament. Darn. I think that's what he said. He said he wanted me to have an MRI on my knee. There that word is again. MRI. But, this time my head will be outside the machine since they are doing it on my knee. I will be ok with that. He said that if the MRI did indeed show a tear that it wouldn't ever heal, so he would have to go in and take out the bad part. I thought to myself, "Wait a minute. Go in?" So I asked him if that meant surgery and he said yes, but it would just be a day surgery. He said as long as I didn't stoop, bend and do those other things right after the surgery I should be back to normal in a short length of time. But he said we were getting way ahead of ourselves because that's the worst case scenario. I guess he wanted to prepare me just in case. Well. That was not what I expected. I expected to hear that I could get some therapy, maybe a prescription. But, I've been mistaken before. I keep remembering the neck fiasco. Anyway, even though I am not enthused about any of this, I will get the MRI because I want to know if I have a torn ligament or exactly what is wrong. I think I heard him say the word degenerative again, just like with my neck. After I told Eddie what the doctor said, he said that if I have to have the surgery, I should go ahead and get it while I'm off from work on Christmas vacation. Oh boy. I can't wait. Just the way I wanted to spend my Christmas vacation. It all depends on when they can schedule it anyway. They may not have any openings until after the first of the year. But, if I have to have it done, I guess it's best to go ahead and get it over with instead of having to worry about it over Christmas vacation. My only fear about it is that the one and only time I had surgery (30 years ago), the anesthetic made me sick to my stomach. I threw up quite a bit until the nurse finally gave me a nausea shot. I expressed my fear to one of the nurses today, and she told me that they give you some kind of antacid now that helps with that. She said they have made great advances from what they knew years ago. I hope she's right. Anyway, I'm going to hope and pray that I don't need the surgery. Maybe God will be watching over me.

After work today I ran some errands before I went home. I needed to get some things. I stopped first at Books-A-Million just to browse. I looked at the fiction books, looked for some knitting magazines, and then I looked in the needlework section for knitting books. After that I wandered up toward the front of the store and browsed through the 2005 calendars. I found what looks like a really neat desk calendar. It's a tear off day at a time and it's called "Knitting Pattern-a-Day" 2005 Calendar. I debated on whether to buy it or not, but I justified it by saying that I needed cheering up after what I learned today about my knee. So I bought it. Then I went to Kmart and bought some socks for a Christmas gift for a family that my department at work has adopted. Each year we adopt a needy family and they fill out a sheet telling us their wants and needs. So, last night at Target I bought some underwear for the mother, and tonight at Kmart I bought some socks for her. While I was browsing in Kmart I saw that the jeans that I wear were on sale, so I bought a pair of those. Then I wandered around and came to the Christmas cards. I know I don't need anymore, but these were on sale, so I bought a box to give to my coworkers and another box to give to our out of town family and friends. Last night at Target I found some cute Christmas socks. The socks have wide stripes in red and white, and on the leg part there is a cute gingerbread man with buttons for his chest. Really cute.

Today when I got home I found out that the builders had cut the door that will lead from our dining room into the sunroom. It's really strange because it sounds like we are in a warehouse when we talk. Right now it echoes and, because of all the windows, we can hear the traffic from outside. We have always heard traffic somewhat, but we have gotten used to it. We just have to get used to the sunroom. I think that once we get the floor down and the mini-blinds and the valances up, and our furniture in there, it will muffle the echo sound and the noise from outside. It's coming along nicely. The builder projected being finished by next Friday. But, Eddie has his doubts and I have to admit that I have mine too, unless they are planning to work constantly.

I am off for four days this weekend, and I hope to put our Christmas tree up and get the house more in order for Christmas. Thinking about all of the work to be done and this possible surgery is really exhausting and stressful.