A Bump in the Road to Recovery

While not literally a bump in the road, there was an incident on a real road this morning that, for a few hours, made me think that I had hit a proverbial bump on the road to recovery. It was strange, temporarily upsetting, but ultimately not an issue. Curious? Here's the bizarre little chain of events.

Knowing that it was going to be another very hot day, Stan suggested that we have a short outing early this morning. We needed a few things at CVS which is not at all far from where we live, so I got dressed and, by 9:15 (early for us!), we left the house to make the short drive. We left our neighborhood, got onto U.S. 50 for the short drive to CVS, and were waiting at the traffic light to turn left into the access road leading to the drugstore. The left turn arrow came on, Stan began to turn, and then braked suddenly because another car started forward coming from the other direction (he did not have a green light, but was "jumping the gun"). As one does reflexively, I braced myself with my legs, and, well.....yes, it hurt. Stan was worried but I insisted that I was okay, so we went on into CVS, although after just a few minutes, my knee began to hurt quite a lot. I didn't want to make a big deal about it, but I did tell Stan that we needed to pay and go home, which is what we did.

Usually it's not pain that bothers me, it's the not knowing what is causing the pain that bothers me, so by the time we got home, I was a little bothered because my knee had stiffened and swelled up noticeably and I was alarmed, thinking that maybe I'd injured my knee. I asked Stan to help me ice and elevate my leg, and so stayed in that position for quite a while. My knee wasn't feeling better and I decided that I should take some Percocet, eat something to counteract the Percocet, ice and elevate again, and retire to my bed. So around noon I went to Stan's office, aka my bedroom, and read for quite a long time until I fell asleep. Most, most happily, I slept for almost 3 hours and woke up feeling just fine! Whew! That was a relief! The swelling was down, the stiffness was back to normal stiffness, my knee didn't hurt anymore, and I felt energetic.

In fact, I felt so good that I came out to the family room and announced to Stan that I wanted to do all my exercises, which I did without any noticeable ill effects. So, double whew! Crisis averted! I have to tell you, though, I was worried. I kept thinking that to have gone through all this only to be thwarted by an idiot driver would have been downright tragic. Fortunately, however, the four-pronged action of ice, elevate, rest, and Percocet seems to have saved the day.

I'm now looking forward to my shot (as soon as my daughter-in-law gets off work and swings by our house) and to Stan's quesadillas. Stan makes great cheese quesadillas which, along with salsa and chips, makes a perfect Saturday night meal, don't you think? And just to be on the safe side, I think we'll not take any drives for a couple of days!