On Saturday, March 4, Albany received enough wet snow that several tree branches came down throughout the city. One was in my yard. Unfortunately, it was also totally across the sidewalk. It needed to be moved.
Ultimately, I needed to walk into the few inches of snow. Unfortunately, atop the snow was a sheet of ice, which made me turn my ankle. It was uncomfortable, but I figured it’d pass. The next day, it seemed fine.
Monday morning – more the middle of the night – I awoke to extreme pain on the left side of my left knee. I could not bear to put any weight on it. Getting out of the office chair took ten minutes.
So I spent the better part of Monday and Tuesday, my 70th birthday, sitting on the sofa, my damn knee elevated, watching news programs (60 Minutes et al.), and reading magazines. I couldn’t focus on much more than that.
Eventually, I felt less pain with a knee brace and a walking stick. I first damaged my knee in 1994, as I wrote here. I’m working on getting an ortho appointment.
You gotta have heart
Meanwhile, I went to see my original cardiologist on March 9. Even after a few scans over the past three years, it is “unclear whether the patient’s bicuspid valve is congenital or acquired due to heavy calcification.” I have a “moderate dilation of the ascending aorta. The maximum diameter of the enlarged segment is 5.1 cm.”
If it gets to 5.5 cm, I get to have heart surgery. Oh, joy! I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me a little anxious when I think about it, which is about twice a year when I get the scans and see the heart doc.
I need to lose more weight, as I’ve lost none since the beginning of the year. The good news is that I haven’t gained any either, and it’s stayed in a five-pound range.
I’m so sorry about your knee! My mother-in-law, almost 98 years old, used to say that getting old was like playing Roulette – every year, you spin the wheel and wait to see what will be wrong. She was actually in great health, for someone her age, until 3 years ago. I hope your knee gets better and I hope you don’t have to have surgery on your knee or on your heart!
I LOVE Lisa’s reply above. It’s all a crap shoot!. Good luck and wishes for healing on your ankle & knee. The heart docs in Albany are the best I know they’ll keep you ticking along …
Myself? I’m waiting a call with a date for my left hip replacement!
What kind of scans were done, Roger? Sounds like you’ve got some serious plaque in some serious places. In my experience, nothing will tell you better information than an angiogram, and if there is a problem they fix it right there. I know a terrific cardiologist in Poughkeepsie who saved my life is you are looking for a second opinion.