So yesterday, while again feeling very sorry for mysejf, my ever supportful and encouraging husband asked me what things in the future would make me feel I had completed recovered.
So we set some goals.
I know not to set a rom number or a time or date as a goal, so we focused on accomplishments.
I cannot do any of these things yet:
1. To be able to bend well enough to get in and out of the car without needing the door wide open. ( sometimes in parking lots cars are too close together to do this )
2. Up and down stairs normally.
3. Go through the day without thinking about the knee.
4. Sit comfortably in a restaurant without having to prop my foot up on my cane.
5. Bowl like I used to, being able to approach the throw line like I used to, instead of the way I currently just carry the balk to the line and throw it without bending the PKR knee. --This one must be the most important to me because I cried when I said it, and am now as I type it.
Instead of enjoying the fact that I can even bowl at all, I feel embarrassed that I look like I don't know what I'm doing. However, my scores are improving as I get used to my current throw. And when I am there with my league friends I do have a good time.
I even found an article online about the 10 health benefits of bowling. I was surprised to learn that if you bowl 3 games, which we do, you walk a little more than half a mile. Who knew!
Thank you,
@yesyvonne for reminding me about this post.
I am one year post op, this week, and have accomplished some of these:
1. I can get in and out of the car without needing the door wide open, and can even do it in somewhat close quarters!
2. Stairs. Not yet, and maybe not ever. It is a rare occasion that I ever have to do stairs. If I wanted to practice some I’d have to figure out where to go, then go there regularly, and even continue that to maintain it, since I almost never have stairs to do. Not worth all that effort of leaving home to accomplish that.
3. I have no idea when I might go through a day without my knee clearly letting me know it’s there.
4. Yes, I can comfortably sit in a restaurant without using my cane for a footstool
5. Bowling! I have accepted my new-since-surgery approach as my new normal and I’m fine with that. I may never go back to the approach I used to use. My scores are consistently lower than before surgery. My ball speed is way slower than before and my husband says that’s because I’m not doing my pre surgery approach which would use more of my body and momentum as I throw the ball. Right now I carry the ball to the line and throw it, bending at the waist.
I’m just happy I can bowl! While I like better scores, I don’t get upset if they are low. It’s still fun with my friends and good movement for my body.
Oh, and note to self, don’t ever throw the ball again with my left hand!
I am right handed but bowled so badly on Wednesday that one friend suggested using my left hand. He was kidding but I tried it anyway. The ball hit the gutter not even halfway down the lane, I couldn’t even get my hand in the right position to throw it, and shortly after my left arm hurt. Dumb, dumb, dumb!
I won’t do that again! Thankful the arm settled down quickly.
So in spite of my disappointment there are improvements. But they are improvements since the surgery. I don’t consider I have any improvements from before surgery. The arthritis pain is not there like it was, but it has been traded for more constant and worse discomfort, so it’s not an improvement.
United States
It was bizarre. I've never had prickly leg hair before. Mine is usually very fine, sparse, and blonde. Mr. Shoes and the Big Italian Family teased that I was becoming one of them. 
