Balance, it’s all about balance…

Sometimes it is difficult to know how much, or indeed how little, you should do in the way of exercise. I am a firm believer in the fact that often we need to work past the pain to make the gains. No pain, no gain, right!

That is all well and good, but how do you know when it is all too much? When you should dial it all back a little, because your body is trying to tell you to STOP!

Well, epic fail this week! I have been increasing my exercise, in a manner in which I thought I was slowly increasing the amount and type of exercise that I am doing. I have graduated from the static bike inside to the e-bike and a short ride outside. Following that a reasonably long walk with my husband. I have been going to bowls each weekend on a Saturday for a couple of hours and clocked up quite a few walks up and down the green. I was starting to feel like I am reclaiming my body, my freedom and my ability to enjoy being out and about and exercising.

For the last couple of days, my knee has been niggly. Never quite stopped being sore – sometimes it frees up if I walk about for a bit and stops hurting – and just carried on getting sorer. So, I contacted my surgeon and asked to see him and saw him yesterday. He agreed that my knee was swollen and warm to the touch and also had fluid on it. He thought there was a possibility of an infection, and this needed to be investigated. By the way I “Dr Googled” it – yes, I know I shouldn’t – but apparently there are 1% of knee replacements that become infected. Hopefully, I am not in that minority group! He advised me to rest completely till I see him again and he sent me for some blood tests. Results are in, but of course as a non-medical person, I can’t understand them.

Going to see him again tomorrow morning and see what the outcome of the blood tests is. I had gone into work this morning, but found that my knee was very sore, probably sorer than it was the other day. So, I made the call to my boss and said I needed to go home. Try as I might, there is a lot of walking in my job, so staying at work and not walking on it was pretty much an impossibility. I am home now till Monday, so that I can rest up and hopefully get back to work and walking.

This has been frustrating for me as my knee has been going so good. I was even commenting to people that I felt like I was almost walking like a ‘normal’ person. Now this comes up and bites me and I’m back to feeling in pain and very disgruntled I can tell you!

Oh well, tomorrow I see the surgeon and see what’s what and what I need to do. Hopefully, just resting up for the rest of the week will sort things out. The last thing I want is any possibility of further surgery and recovery.

I am so ready to reclaim my life and to be able to exercise more. I’m not talking turning into a ‘gym bunny’ or running a marathon. Just a walk without pain would be enough, thank you very much!

Maybe only time will tell, but it is taking it’s bloody time!

(sigh….)