You know, I am really getting tired of messing with this knee! My knees have been a pain in my arse since I was 13 years old, after dislocating it the first time. They are both prone to that, and the multiple dislocations, sprains and strains they have experienced are starting to take their toll.

Luckily, my new doctor at Texas Bone and Joint (Elite Orthopedics) thinks he has a good solution.

First, did I tell you how we got here this time? Well, I was doing the exercise the chiropractor (who did my stem cell injection) gave me, and all they did was compound the problem. This girl is not supposed to do squats, lunges, deep knee bends or anything resembling that. Which makes for a sad girl since she likes to work in the garden. Anyway, the new doc took x-rays, which I vehemently fought against thinking it would show him nothing about my knee really. However, he saw enough to know I have arthritis and bone spurs (which we already knew) and he believes I would be a good candidate for a minimally invasive surgery called arthroscopy where he could address my issues and get me functioning again without doing a total knee replacement yet. He feels like that is the very last resort, because if you do it too young (and I’m about to be 58) you will likely have to do it again in the future.

So he drained the fluid off my knee, injected some kind of medication (Cortisol maybe) and put me in a new brace ($500 down the tube for the old brace 😦 which he said was not doing me any good at all) Do you sometimes get the feeling some doctors are only out to make a buck off of you? I’m starting to wonder and I have a very good feeling about this guy. The next step is to get a very specific type of MRI (naturally) which will tell him for sure if I am a candidate for either procedure. Then he will see me back in a week and we will discuss my results and how to proceed form there.

Today I feel a little bit stronger in the brace, albeit very slow moving still. I’m very sore, and tightening or turning the wrong way still causes pain. Which reminds me, I need to call the office and see if they sent in the order for my new anti-inflammatory he wants me to take (Celebrex). Also, I have no idea if they called and ordered the MRI yet, but they were supposed to. I will ask about that as well. Anyway, that is all the news there is to know about my boring old, decrepit knee.

Now, I have been writing stuff and sending it out, today I wrote a humorous poem which I entered in the Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest from Winning Writers. It’s a no fee contest and the first prize is $1000, 2nd prize is $250, 10 honorable mentions are $100 each, and the top 12 entries are published online. Wish me luck, and all you poets, or wanna be poets, get in on the fun! Click the link which should take you to the right page.

My entry was called A Siege on Sleep and was inspired by the fact that I got no sleep last night…at all…a nap would be nice, lol. It is the longest poem I’ve ever written, yet still not the maximum length the contest allows. I think mine was like 55 lines…they allow up to 250!

I’m not a real poet, I want my poems to rhyme, probably comes from my love of music and lyrics. We will see anyway. I get my practice from submitting a poem about once a week on Medium. It is a great place to write, very supportive and you get feedback (some of the time) If a fellow writer likes your work, they will also highlight their favorite lines and you are expected to return the favor, which I try to do, but I’m not the best cheerleader. In my opinion, their best cheerleader is still Tre Loadholt who took a break, but came back to all of our pleasure. You can find her work at A Cornered Gurl.

Ok, this is getting a bit long, so I’ll close by saying that I am also reading The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood in my Libby app, and I am enjoying it very much. So much, in fact, that now I want to get HuLu so I can watch the series. I have Amazon Prime and a fire stick, so maybe I can figure out how to do that.

Happy Friday everyone, if it’s cold where you are, stay warm!