I Am Getting Old - Part Twenty-six

I am getting old because…Somehow, I twisted my knee last Friday and being the optimist I am (when it comes to aches and pains and there are millions of them now lol), I assumed it would quit hurting, I could walk and everything would be okay. How wrong can someone be? It is now Tuesday afternoon and the pain has only increased. It hurts to walk unless I stiffen the entire right leg, then it only hurts a little bit and I look funny when I walk. (Shades of Chester from the old TV show, Gunsmoke.) I have been taking Ibuprofen and that is not working very well. The pain is starting to gravitate up my thigh to my hip, probably because of the funny way I am walking.

I just started to look for a doctor in the area and have not had much success since there are lots of doctors here who do not accept Medicare, which I find hard to believe and is a story of its own. This may just accelerate the search or else I will have to go to the emergency room, and I really do not really want to. A trip to the ER may have an up side since a doctor would probably want x-rays and that would mean a second trip to the x-ray place. In either case, I think I need to get it treated. When I put my hand on the knee cap, I can feel “something” moving inside and I can “hear” the movement. It is hard to explain.

Enough about the knee for now and on to the hunt for my next topic which is, WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR SKIN WHEN IT AGES?. I always wondered why my mother had so many scrapes and bruises as she got older. Now I think I know. It seems the skin must get thinner as you age and is easier to scrape and bruise. It only takes a small pressure to damage the skin. Most of the time, I am not even sure how or when it happened. I was shopping the other night and the side of my leg started to itch. I scratched the spot (through my slacks) and that night when I dressed for bed, you should have seen what had happened to my leg. There is an injury about 3 inches long, 2 inches wide with red marks (I call them blood blisters) and bruising. Evidently, I am not aware of my own strength. lol I found a small scrape on the side of my arm. There are so many of these “injuries”, I am afraid that the doctors will think I have been beaten if I make the trip to the ER and a few months ago that may have been true.

I am not complaining. I am grateful that I still have my limbs and my skin. A few aches and pains are nothing compared to what others must feel when they lose a limb or burn their skin. I am very fortunate.