Mostly, these days, I don’t mourn the things my knees used to do. I’m forward looking, thinking about knee replacement and about long hikes. Also, dancing. I’m excited about having dancing in my future.
Running is a thing of the past.
Four years ago I wrote that not being able to run made me sad and I admitted that sometimes I cried about it.
Now, I am anticipating dancing. I think often about long walks. I can’t wait until I can sleep without pain. But running? Meh. I no longer cry about missing it.
Still, I’m shocked at how fast all this has happened.
A few people asked if I was doing the Pride Run this year. Nope. No more Pride Runs.
I remember getting the running reprieve from the knee surgeon when we first met. He asked how much I liked soccer and if I was okay with giving it up. I was. But running short distances fast? (Well, fast-for-me.) That could stay.
Here’s my Facebook status update from May 15, 2015, “Knee surgeon appointment was uneventful. As you might wish for with a knee surgeon. I don’t, as yet, even need any of the pre-surgical options. Keep doing physio, stay pain free, ride my bike as much as I want, keep running short distances (5 km) and revisit in a year. Bye bye soccer. But we knew that. And it’s fine to work on running 5 km faster.”
And here’s Mallory and me at the Pride Run 7 years ago.
What’s on my list of things that I can’t do now that I hope I can do in the future?
- Dancing
- Hiking
- Walking around new places when I travel
- Backpacking and back country camping
- Sleep without pain… That’s a biggie
- Walking around campus all day without worrying I’m doing too much
- Standing up at social events and convocation
