My ankle that I broke last year has good days and bad days.

I had a total knee replacement in 2017. I still have trouble with stairs, and can’t kneel at all. It sucks. BUT, at least I’m not in pain all the time anymore. Oh yeah…I had an Achilles tendon repair in 2016 and can’t get up on tiptoes on that foot. Almost forgot – 3 rotator cuff surgeries in 2014 and 2015 and my right shoulder ‘catches’ from time to time.

I hate running and jogging now. Running in boots and on pavement gave me shin splints a few times in the Navy. I go on quick runs that are light and don’t push myself but I don’t do much hard running and sprinting much anymore.

I broke my leg just above the ankle back in 1977, It healed pretty well and doesn’t cause me grief most of the time.

Except certain weather conditions: I live east of San Francisco over the Berkeley Hills where it can be very warm and dry. And I work in San Francisco where it can be 40 degrees cooler and damp from the fog/marine layer. Too many mornings I commute on the train, the door opens and my ankle feels like it is going to buckle under me from the sharp pains as the dampness hits me.

Golf cart accident about 8 years ago.

The lasting problems are neck and shoulder pain and vertigo. The neck and shoulder pain is constant. I can be free of the pain if I’m positioned just right, but if I sleep the wrong way it can be a disaster for days of really bad pain. When I do one of my favorite exercises, zumba, I can’t do a lot of the arm movements on my left side because of the pain. I can’t carry pocketbooks like I used, it has to be lightweight and best if it’s over my head across my body. My shoulder hurts fairly quickly if the bag is just hanging in my shoulder, even relatively light bags. I have to be careful when I lift things.

The vertigo is positional. At times I’m completely free of it, but then it will start up again, and I attempt to fix it with the Epley Maneuver eventually fixing it again. It can take months before I get free of it. I hope I will continue to be able to correct it. From what I understand it might get harder to correct as I get older.

Also lasting from the accident are several scars. I was sliced across my breasts, the right breast being the worst, that scar is about 3 inches across, like a knife slice. Large misshapen ragged blob shaped scars on my shoulder and knee. Lots of scars on my right elbow that are about an inch like slices. Faint scars on my stomach from a chain link fence. When it first happened I had a chain link pattern in cuts and blood across my stomach, but much of that healed without scarring, maybe if I tanned my stomach it would be more visible.

Tore my right hamstring back in 2007. I still regularly target it with strength training. Still have an imbalance of strength between my right and left hamstrings.

I tried to stop a Volkswagen Squareback in 1975 with my left knee. 45 years later, it’s still my “wild card” knee, unpredictable, whimsical, and often the source of surprise pain.
It’s like having demented squirrel living mid-leg.

I injured my knee in 1983. I still feel it when the weather changes, or when walking downhill.