Photoessay #1521 - Stupid middle-aged tricks

So my right knee has been hurting for a few weeks. Being of a certain age, I immediately go to knee replacement surgery. Several people I know have gone through it and it looked miserable. It keeps hurting and hurting.

So I went for my periodic session with my naturopathic doctor for my upper back. I complain about my knee. She asks me if I've injured my knee in some way. I look her right in the eye and say truthfully "No, nothing I can think of". Later she pokes around with it and it really doesn't seem so bad.

Then it all comes back to me.

A few weeks ago, when I was working as an usher at the University of Washington football game, I was standing in my tunnel in the middle of the game. That job is really about standing there. Just being there in case something happened in your section. I regularly announced to my section that nobody was going to have a medical emergency or fall down the stairs in my section. It's a 12:30 start which I have learned this year makes a huge difference. Things are calm. Mostly I'm answering questions, greeting people, directing people to their seats. And keeping the stairway going down to 5 rows of seats and my tunnel clear of people who just like to hang out there. So there's a young girl that stands at the top of the stairway. Young teenager, kinda gangly, she stands quietly watching the game but seems to really be reacting to the plays, good and bad. Kids about that age have so much range of motion and they often stand or stretch in crazy ways which feels very comfortable to them. So she's comfortably standing in the way demonstrated by my sandals, her right foot turned in back of the left.

I get this bright idea that I would like to see what that would feel like. You can see that they really should give me more to do. So I decide that I will try to stand like she does. Just for the crazy experience of it. It made sense at the time. So I did it. I turn my right foot inward and put it in back of my left foot. Not very comfortable and it pulls my leg in a funny way. Pretty weird, these kids, they can do anything. So I go back to standing normally.

And now I wonder why my right knee hurts. Of course, I twisted it with that stunt. So I have weeks of pain and likely some doctor visits, lots of ice. As a result of trying to act like I can move like a 13 year old girl.

Hello, I'm 59! With limited range of motion as it is! What was I thinking?

Pictures of my birkies on my outdoor deck this fine fall afternoon.