If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you know I blew my knee out in 2020. After staining our back deck on my hands and knees, I walked down a step and bam… it felt like a rubber band snapped. Excruciating pain made me scream and it’s been a five year nightmare ever since.
The diagnosis was a deep root radial meniscus tear (the kind that never heals) and damage to my ACL.
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Swollen? Just a bit.
😳
I saw a doctor. Who gave me an X-ray and sent me to an orthopedist. Who scheduled an MRI.
After reading the MRI the orthopedist told me, and I quote..
“It will either heal or it won’t” (which was very helpful, Not!) shot me full of cortisone and sent me on my way.
I iced, I elevated, I compressed and after a while my pain dropped to a manageable level. Never gone, but I sucked it up and carried on. I tried to stay active though there were times my knee screamed uncle.
In early 2023 the pain was becoming a problem again so I saw another doctor, who sent me to another orthopedist, who shot me full of more cortisone and scheduled 8 weeks of physical therapy.
The deep tissue massage felt great, the exercises helped stretch a tendon which had shrunk a bit from inactivity, but it didn’t address the underlying problem.
By late 2023 I still had considerable pain and decided to try acupuncture.
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It immediately reduced the swelling and dropped my pain level back to manageable. But it’s not covered by insurance and gets expensive quite quickly, so I took a few months of treatments and called it good.
2024 saw good knee days and bad knee days… with me never knowing what triggered increased pain.
By 2025 I had given up the treadmill, push mowing the lawn and started dreading stairs. At this point walking down a flight took twice as long as it should and made me feel 100 years old. Swelling had returned and I experienced serious stiffness whenever I got up after sitting. I moaned, I groaned, I limped.
Which sent me back to acupuncture a few months ago. Again, the swelling was quickly reduced, the stiffness was gone and pain returned to a manageable level.
But then, I went to sleep.
In case you were wondering? Yes… it’s entirely possible to tweak a torn meniscus when rolling over in bed because I did it and woke up gasping in pain.
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Now I can’t bend my knee without cringing. Walking hurts. Sleeping hurts. Stairs? No can do. So I made another appointment with my doctor who will no doubt send me to another orthopedist and I’m guessing the knee replacement surgery I’ve been dreading is in my future.
Has anyone out there had it?
And if so, what was your experience?
If you have any advice or suggestions… I think I’m ready to listen.
My appetizer of corn and spicy chicken egg rolls were equally as good.
Maine Family Farms chicken, roasted corn, cumin, Monterey jack cheese, chili powder, egg roll wrapper, chipotle aioli, pico-slaw.
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And there it is. Unassuming to view… but this cider brined chop is next level good and perfectly grilled. You’ve never had pork like this, it’s melt in your mouth tender.
Prime center cut chop, French green beans, butternut puree, Ricker Hill Honeycrisp apple, caramelized onion.
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I went with the chicken cordon bleu which was wonderful as well.
Maine Family Farms chicken breast, egg, flour, Bumbleroot Farm spinach, Pineland Farms Swiss cheese, Canadian bacon, cream, parmesan, Waxwing Bakery breadcrumbs.
We’ve come to the realization it’s impossible to have a bad meal at Yolked. Oh, you’ll pay for the privilege… but what’s life without a little splurging?
Lord Dudley Mountcatten can sleep anywhere at anytime.
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Even sitting up straight in the sun.
He really was sound asleep and tumbled onto the couch shortly after the picture was taken… losing all that hard won feline dignity in the process.
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As promised –
This isn’t the actual feathered roach clip photo I’d been searching for, but it’s from the same Halloween party circa 1981. By the time this was taken I’d lost the headband and tomahawk, but the clips are still there.
🤣
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We have one little visiting opossum.
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It’s so cold, and his fur is just thin hairs.
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I never understand how they can survive Maine winters, but they do.
And speaking of winter…
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This is our immediate future.
With the local news using some pretty technical meteorological terms…
Have you seen the new AI tool on Facebook that turns your photos into cartoons? Knowing my distaste for all intelligence that’s artificial … you can guess how thrilled I was at my results.
First up?
A woodchuck.
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Which morphed into … what is that, an extremely happy dire wolf ?
Next I tried Lord Dudley Mountcatten. I figured that wouldn’t be difficult.
He only has two colors.
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Umm… no. Not even close. And is that a dismembered tail to the right?
Tired of animals, I tried people.
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Well, they nailed the cleavage… but my cartoon GI Joe-like husband looks as if he wants to strangle me.
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I could live with this version of myself. At least her face is thinner.
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But how did they manage to turn my big smile into a scowl here?
Not overly impressed, I tried one more photo.
And had my biggest laugh.
Not only did they turn me from a brunette into a blonde…
River's world..... 