Catch 22

Although I am doing wonderfully with the progress of my knee replacements. I do have a dilemma to deal with. You see, because of the injuries I received to my ankles 37 years ago TODAY (in fact) my ankles are very weak and have been fused to the point where I have very little movement in them. I had some bone loss due to them being crushed and they are held together now with 3 large screws in each ankle. I think I'm stuck with this senario for the rest of my life. No matter how great my knees get...my ankles will always keep me handicapped.

The more I walk on my knees, the better off I am. The pain is practically nothing at the end of the day if I have done a sufficient amount of walking. When I don't walk so much, they get stiff and I have more pain. The catch 22 is with my ankles, because the more I walk on my ankles, the more pain I have. Thankfully, it is pain that I can walk through. I can't walk nearly as far as someone with healthy joints, and the pain isn't such that I MUST stop walking (like the knee pain was before the surgery) Before the surgery, the knee pain was debilitating and I simply could not walk or bend my knees. So, all in all...I'm way better than I was before, but if I had good ankles, I'd be running by now. On the other hand, if I had good ankles, my life would be entirely different too and I could be a lot worse off than I would want to think about. So, I spend my time thanking my lucky stars to be where I am. Although it does get frustrating sometimes.