You all know I am at the gym at least 5 days per week, swimming, running on the elliptical or lifting weights. On the weekends I often bicycle ride, go hiking, or just walking at the beach. On vacation I dive, I snorkel, I hike in the mountains, I swim with sharks and sting rays. The point is I am active. I like being active. It’s part of the life I have made for myself after weight loss surgery. Most of you also know that this September I will be celebrating my 70th birthday. Wow, that’s a lot of year on this planet.
I have rarely suffered injuries that kept me down. I have had some surgeries that required recuperation periods and those were hard on me to say the least. I work on balance, fitness and flexibility constantly to try to avoid what is the beginning of the end for so many older folks - a fall. The crazy part is I still manage to fall about once a year. Well this week I had that fall and it had me terrified that I would be out of the gym, out of my fitness activity, out of that which keeps me sane in a very crazy world.
Here’s what happened:
My granddaughter and her 11-year-old pit bull/boxer mix lives with us. The dog is a sweetheart, gentle as a lamb and funny as all get out. I am enjoying having them both with us, sometimes more than I let on. When my granddaughter works a shift that is longer than 4 hours I will typically take the dog for a walk to relieve herself since it’s my back yard that she lives in, and my yard is tiny. She is 80 pounds of muscle, most of it between her front legs… She has never tried to pull away from me and is always sweet and cooperative since she has to go. She stops when asked, sits when asked, gets up when asked and when she takes treats from you makes sure that her teeth never touch you. You can “steal” her bone and she growls and wants to play but NEVER snaps. Like I said she is a sweet pup.
Well the other night I took her out because SHE told me she needed to go, she was in the process of relieving herself in a vacant lot with no other dogs and humans around and suddenly she turned, barked and lunged all in one move, and I was down for the count. There was another dog and family coming up from behind a house and she sensed their presence. I quickly shouted STOP and she did (I also shouted a few other words like *!@# and **+=#!) and stumbled to my feet. She was standing there barking but not moving.
Guess she did not like the dog that was coming up the street. I asked the folks to not approach and give me time to pick up after her (yes, I am a good dog walker) and get her back in her yard. I limped back to the house and let her go into her yard. She ran into her doghouse and hid from me because she knew she did something wrong - THAT is how sweet she is.
Enough about the dog. I was in pain. My right knee (already severely arthritic) was on fire and I was shaking from the adrenalin. I thought I would be needing to go to the ER, but sucked it up, raised my leg, took some Tylenol, rubbed it with some CBD cream and eventually spent a night trying to get comfortable. Nothing was broken, it was barely swelling more than usual, it just hurt. I woke up the next morning still in pain and limped my way to the gym to try and swim.
My goal was to keep it from freezing up and not working at all. I gave myself permission to stop if it hurt more than just standing still. Well I stopped swimming laps when it began hurting more than it did when I got in the water, then marched for a couple of laps raising my knees as high as I could with each step to try and loosen things up. I had been swimming for 30 minutes by then. I got showered, dressed and went on with my day, getting up and walking a bit every hour.
By the end of the day the pain was at about 50% of what it was initially. I cancelled my elliptical and weight lifting for the next day, chose swimming instead and went to bed hopeful that I hadn’t suffered any permanent damage.
The next morning I woke up, got out of bed with just a minimal twinge in my knee, walked the stairs down like a normal person instead of sideways and headed to the gym for a great swim. I am 95% recovered and I know it was because I was staying in motion.
I could have gone to the emergency room. I could have - elevated, iced and rested the knee all day, taken pain pills and anti-inflammatories, which probably would have been prescribed. I could have done all of that and still been here with a knee that wouldn’t bend and worrying about whether I would be able to ever walk normally again.
I may be nearing 70 but I certainly didn’t do all this work to let my head get the best of me when my gut was telling me to suck it up and try swimming… after all Newton’s first law of physics applies here… a body in motion tends to stay in motion.
It is my first law also - Keep moving!!