SHARES
“The snail carries its house wherever it goes. It is my childhood superhero! I’ve worked for 65 years, carrying excessive weight day and night and sometime pounding the pavement. Now, can I slow down? Ouch! I am your overworked and painful knees.”
A day in the life of your knees struggling with Osteoarthritis
It is 6 am, the weather is still cold.
All the red hot inflammation had finally cooled down overnight. I should have been more forgiving towards your mistreatment yesterday. We both suffered a painfully sleepless night.
Ouch! Can you please don’t move? It hurts me.
I am not done blaming on you. Your years of abuse had left me with all these scars called fibrous bands. Morning stiffness sets in but I do not give in easily. Now, my first task of the day is to get you up from your bed. This is the toughest moment of my everyday life. Can you please give me a helping hand? Hold on to something please! After more than 30 minutes of gentle exercise movements and warm massages, I’ve finally loosened up a bit.
We walk past a flight of stairs to the bathroom, bringing back good memories. We used to joyfully carry your wife up the stairs to bed and piggybacked the kids down the stairs. Today, I can’t even squat over the pan, we need a commode to relieve ourselves then clean up later.
By 9 am, it’s time to get groceries.
We have to forget about putting on that nice canvas shoes and striped socks. Because it is too arduous a task for me to stand on one leg. Sitting down and standing up again is even more painful. For convenience, we wear a pair of light sandals.
Walking to the nearest bus stop is not easy on me especially going uphill and downhill. Worst of all, the bus stop is always full of working adults, so preoccupied with their work stress of the day to even notice me standing there in pain.
The bus arrives. I may be ignorant, but why is the bus designed in such a way that the first step is so high? I guess I’d just have to endure. Ouch! Now, I’m comfortable and satisfied after getting a seat reserved for seniors like me. I really appreciate these little thoughtfulness. I struggle with you to complete the shopping for the day.
Finally, we get back home. We’ll just stay in for the rest of the day
It’s not that we’re not sociable, but I’m in pain. We relax in the sofa instead of our favourite lounge chair. That chair is too low for me to get up from again!
In the evening, our grandchildren are here for a walk in the park. Wonderful! But I know you are going to act tough in front of the grandkids again. We could do better if you wore protective knee guards. Well, I guess it will be another painful sleepless night for us again.
Have you been taking care of your knees?
Your knees are speaking up to warn you. Our knee health is easily taken for granted when we can still run, jump, and dance. Tough days are ahead should your knees be worn out carrying too much weight and enduring constant impact wearing away the cartilage, tendons and joint. Osteoarthritis, a debilitating condition affecting your mobility, sets in as you age.
What is osteoarthritis?
Osteoarthritis causes pain in the joints on movement. It is a result of wear and tear of your joints over years of extensive use. Usually, the large weight bearing joints like your knee and hip joints are affected. It is part of aging process. However, being obese, having a weak core and weak muscles around the joint plus injuries to the joint can hasten the wear and tear process!
Osteoarthritis of the knee.
Conclusion
Osteoarthritis can affect everyone and we often put the blame on aging. In fact, there is a lot of responsibilities on ourselves to keep a healthy body weight, exercise regularly to strengthen our core and legs muscles as well as eat a healthy diet. This way our knees could hold up much longer and stronger!
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References:
- Carlos JL, Herbert SD. Osteoarthritis [Medscape]. WebMD LLC. 2019. [Available from: https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/330487; last updated on 2019 Mar 19; accessed on 2019 April 25]
- Mayo Clinic Staff. Osteoarthritis [Mayo Clinic]. MFMER. 2019. [Available from: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/osteoarthritis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351925; last updated on 2018 Mar 6; accessed on 2019 April 25]
by Chang Xian
View all articles by Chang Xian.
