OW!

This is all about me and the "Golden Years."  I have PAD. For years a heart murmur has been evident and now, at age 84, the blood is getting down in my legs but not being pumped back up properly. This means that I often have edema in my ankles and feet. I don't do walking like others because of sciatica that has been pervasive for many years. Lately I've noticed difficulty getting up and down from a sitting position - anywhere. I have had to lean far forward and brace my left hand between my legs on the chair and my right arm on the table or something else near by. The right shoulder pain has increased over the past year since my usual local orthopedist has left the practice here. I used to go for steroid injections every eight weeks in the shoulder and sciatic area. They worked. Now, daily I take the highest limit of Tylenol Extra Strength Arthritis that is recommended, and it helps - a little.

Would you believe that my left knee gave out one evening as I attempted to get up from the chair and I fell forward to the floor? What a shock. I'm always careful when walking, to watch where I'm going and my mantra has been "do not fall" since I shattered my shoulder in 2012. What a time the Mister had when he helped me get back up and on the chair again. I didn't think I was hurt and had no obvious injury. After a couple of days I asked a friend to borrow her mother's extra walker as it was still very difficult to get up and down from sitting. After five days my entire leg, especially the knee area, was very painful when I bore weight on it when walking; so bad that I finally called my family doctor for an appointment and I see him today. Right now I'm wearing a wide ace bandage on the area above my knee and it seems to help but bearing weight on that leg is very painful. I'm using the walker totally to get around and it helps relieve the anxiety of another fall and gets some of the weight off of that leg.

DANG!