Algernon

For years an internal clock would start ticking  every time I stood up. If you spent any amount of time with me you'd hear me say I had to get off my knee. The pain would become overwhelming fairly quickly. Faster with each passing year. It's been about a month since the Cortisone shot and I am still in much less pain, which is pleasantly surprising. I have never been completely pain free but I have had moments in which my knee has felt almost normal.
I have more range of motion. I can take full steps instead of shuffling. I can stand longer and walk farther. Just now I took the garbage out, stopped to pick up mail and got back to my apartment before the pain began. And it wasn't even that much pain. It isn't a lot of distance but it's been hard for me to do with out stopping to rest the knee.
There is more than one kind of pain. Some of it is in the muscles and tendons around the joint. I've been working with a massage/Rolfer guy who was doing such good work on the knee before the shot. I've seen him once after the shot and it helped so much.
Swimming helps and I am swimming fairly regularly now. My muscles have adjusted and I don't get as wiped out.
One day last week I woke up achy. I figured the shot had worn off. But it was raining and when it stopped I felt better.
The knee has been stiff, achy and weak for the last two or three days but I'm wearing new shoes. My old shoes were very broken down and I am getting much more support, which is good and should help but the alignment of my ankles, my knees, my hips and my back is shifted and I am adjusting. It's always something.
Still. The shot seems to have helped and seems to be lasting way longer that I thought it would. I'd like to get one in every joint I have.
Those moments when the knee felt normal were amazing. One morning I was standing doing something inconsequential and realized there was no ticking. The freedom in that moment is like nothing I've ever felt.
If you haven't read Flowers For Algernon the title of this post will make no sense. I can get three shots a year. How long will they last? Will the swimming and new shoes and the massage help them last longer? The ticking is actually still there. Just sounds a little different.