#1741 that knee got worked

I am relieved that the Olympics are over. The Games were seriously cutting into my sleeping time. I couldn't tear myself away from them and I went to bed well after 11 pm every night. I'm not as young as I used to be and the lost hours of rest were taking a toll.

Last night I was in bed by 10 and asleep by 10:30. Sadly, I didn't stay asleep. I was having such terrible arthritis pain in my left knee that I couldn't get comfortable. The knee was extremely swollen: bending it hurt and having it straight hurt too. There was nothing for it. I took Aleve and ibuprofen and those two meds didn't even touch the pain. In the hospital you judge your pain on a 10 point scale with 10 being the highest level. Last night I was easily an eight creeping up to a nine.

I came by the pain honestly, though. Yesterday morning I went up to Red Butte Garden to do the bloom recording. There were four concerts up there last week, and the only free day was Tuesday, but I was beat from going to the concert on Monday, so Sunday was the day. I don't think I've ever been up there on a Sunday. There were quite a few families in the Children's Garden. There's a fun fountain for the kids to play in and it looked like everyone was having fun. When I was there, it was warm but not yet really hot, so it was pleasant. Yesterday was the day I saw the most hummingbirds in the garden. They were everywhere. My mom would have loved it!

T and I had made plans to explore the campus that afternoon, so he picked me up at the garden. After a quick lunch, we went to the campus. Our goal was to find all the buildings were he has class so he would at least be familiar with where he needs to go. We were certainly not the only people looking around. There were groups of students, singles and families walking around. It was a beautiful afternoon, but it was hot in the afternoon.

The campus of the University of Utah is quite large and on a big hill. We were down pretty much at the bottom of the hill near President's Circle looking for the building where his math class is, and then we trudged all the way back up the hill near the Huntsman Center to check out the last building. Most of his classes are pretty close together except for those two. He has those classes on Tuesday and Thursday and just 15 minutes to get from the one on lower campus to the one on upper campus. It won't be a problem for him. He's young and fit. For me, it was tiring and it took a damn sight longer than 15 minutes!

After we found the buildings, we drove around looking for parking lots he could use. We spent a couple of hours doing all that. I hope it was beneficial for him. He said he was glad that we took the time to do it. Of course he could have done it on his own, but I was glad to hang out with him and see where he would be spending his time.

It was during the drive home that my knee started to swell and kind of locked up. It was awful. My Fitbit said I had walked over 13,000 steps and climbed the equivalent of 39 staircases. So like I said, I came by the pain honestly.

Today it feels a lot better, but then again, I haven't done anything to aggravate it. I have an appointment to see Dr. F (the knee surgeon) on the 30th. I am expecting the knee to be drained and a cortisone shot administered. The thought of the joint replacement surgery, the recovery and the physical therapy is unappealing, but having this constant pain sucks too.

Well, this wasn't a very cheery post, was it? I bet most of the seven of you didn't even make it down this far in the post! It's ok. I'll do better next time :)