The Beatles once sang that “It’s getting better all the time”. Obviously, they weren’t vocalising about my knee.
Just over a week ago, in a bid to stave off a knee replacement, I had a Hydrocortisone injection. This long lasting anti-inflammatory was injected into my knee joint. I was told that it could take up to a week to become fully effective but then, it could last for a number of months.
As you can probably guess, it hasn’t quite gone to plan.
I have only managed a couple of short (less than a mile) walks this week from which I have returned in a lot of pain necessitating a lie down with an ice pack.
As an aside, my grandson will be starting at a new sixth form college in September and I was asked if I could accompany him on a dry run to get an idea of where and when to catch the various buses he would need every day.
Being before the nine thirty start time to use my Elderly Persons pass, I had to fork out £5.50 for an all day rover ticket (Day Saver). With my knee already playing up, I caught a couple of busses to pick up my charge for the morning.
Travelline, give us a few alternatives but we decided on the 95 to Chelmsley Wood followed by the 72 to Solihull from where a number 5 would take us to the college.
Whilst sat on said 72, I noticed that the CCTV monitor was cycling through most of the cameras on the bus and when it got back around to us, I snapped a bus selfie.
Arriving in Solihull, a few minutes later than planned due to our first bus being delayed, we saw the number 5 pull out. The next wasn’t for another twenty odd minutes but after a short wait, I was told that he knew where the 5 went from and to so we nipped into the nearby Tesco for some bottle of pop before jumping the next 72 going home.
At Chelmsley Wood, we went our separate ways as I had to call in to my local Post Office to drop off an Amazon return.
From my final bus, I had a short walk of only around a fifth of a mile but it was a struggle and I’m sure I was crawling along at less that two miles an hour (30 minute per mile).
I returned my package then started my watch for the half a mile or so back home. I could hardly move – it was agony. I continued on for a few steps but then had to bite the bullet and phone Sue to ask her to come and pick me up. Can it get any worse?
Back home, I retired with my ice pack before taking the rest of the day easy. In fact, I reinstalled Windows on my little box.
In the evening, I dragged myself to The Griffin (well it was a Wednesday) but my heart wasn’t really in it so after a few pints (and not even the strong stuff) we called it a night.