It’s been a hectic couple of days. Preparing for our trip to WIsconsin tomorrow has been easy enough. We’re experienced travelers. When traveling we live out of one carryon suitcase and a handbag. Easy-peasy.
But wouldn’t you know Mr. Shoes’ body decided the other night this was a fine time to pass a kidney stone!
Ack! He was curled in a fetal position in bed and I’m thinking how I could help him and perhaps salvage our trip.
Of course, the poor man doesn’t want to spend his vacation passing a stone. So I hauled out everything I knew about kidney stones and combined it with a little folk medicine from Bolivia (hey, that stuff is pure gold sometimes) and gave him lots of broth, water, a couple of my muscle relaxers, heating pads, and a few doses of
chanca piedra. It’s a real thing. You can buy it on Amazon and in natural food/health stores.
I was running up and down the stairs heating pads and fixing broth, and just trying to make him feel better. Yesterday, he felt much improved after the medicines. He kept down his supper. And today he passed the stone! Whew! Much as I am perfectly capable of traveling by myself, I would have hated to leave my sweet man behind when he’s sick. Also, my family is so much easier to handle when he’s around. He’s quick-wittted, whereas I am not. Trust me, that matters.
Anyway, the trip is on! Tomorrow we head for the airport.
The good news in all this: Knees held up like champs.
All those trips up and down stairs (I’m pretty sure I did a mile of just stairs), running around town on errands, packing (down to basement for luggage and stored items, up two flights to where clothes live, back to main floor) were a piece of cake. No swelling as a consequence. No pain. I haven’t used ice at all for days. My back was complaining about being tired and overused, but the knees were good.
Tomorrow we’ll see how well they hold up to airports and Mom’s house. [Fun fact: running around airports is what I used to do on my old knees. Tons of traveling, plus I worked in an airport and ran around one every day. I’m an old pro at airports. The knees... are in for a test.
But I walk two miles just about every morning, so I think they’ll be fine, even though inevitably the gate at both ends will somehow be at the farthest possible point from the terminal.]
I took one kick (hanging onto side of pool) and thought “Whoa. I need to build these babies up a little more first.”
A bilateral knee replacement friend (2+ years PO) has been doing this with me before and after his surgery. He sometimes will add 1 1/2 # ankle weights. He says he feels that this has been one of the exercises that has helped him the most.
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