Fessing Up on a Rainy Day

Not Much Going On On a VERY Rainy Day

Mary Lou noted perhaps I could stretch my knees a bit to help with the soreness. I thought I'd fill you all in on that. My knees are a wreck. I do not have an ACL in either one of them. Since that's the ligament that stabilizes the joint, you might get a hint of what goes on.

I had surgery on both of them as well to trim the damaged cartilege but opted out of the surgery to reconstruct the ACL, mostly because of the extended recovery time and because my right knee had been servicable for years without the ACL already. I went through months of physical therapy to strengthen the leg muscles after surgery and it only helped a little. Then, blessing of blessings, I found Dr. Magaziner who does some "state of the art" treaments that help enough to keep me going.

First, he does prolotherapy, which actually is like an internal blister to cause the remaining ligaments to tighten to help hold the joint in place. And he does Platelet Rich Plasma and Stem Cell injections to help heal and regrow the damaged cartilege. I am featured in the video on his website at www.dremagaziner.com talking about how his treaments have helped me. That's me in the turquoise top on the opening page. (Not too flattering pics, but then again, that's me.)

As long as I can ride and do the basic stable work, I'll keep going this route. Otherwise, I suspect knee replacements are in my future. Again, I keep hoping the recovery time will drop as advances are made since I am the caretaker of my critters and finding someone else to take over for a while is not exactly easy.

So far, it's been raining all day. I did have to go back to the chiropractor this morning and my neck is still in its recovery phase, but the weather is not inviting enough to matter.

I debated about putting the Boy's sheets back on and left them off. Good fellows that they are, they seem to be hanging out under the various run in shed roofs available to them. But, when I just looked out now, Chance had been pushed out of the shed, so I went out and put sheets on everyone. It is a little chilly, and I'll have to monitor the temperatures for later tonight as well.

I also just gave everyone a nice little bucket of alfalfa hay cubes, an apple, and two flakes of hay to keep them satisfied until dinner in a few more hours. Times like this, as the rain keeps falling, having the Boys out the back door is a treasure. I know they are dry, well fed, and content.