September 2019, two weeks post op and feeling optimistic. “Let’s go for a walk.” My better half raised his eyebrows. “Are you sure?”
It isn’t a large park and does have a flat well maintained path all the way round so what could go wrong? Well nothing particularly, except “how can it be this hard walking around a park on a flat path?” For starters, I have never noticed before but the flat path isn’t actually flat; it has a slight camber that makes it really difficult to balance on crutches. There are also little stones everywhere that make the end of your crutches roll or skid a bit, and there are slight hills up and down that you have to ‘tell’ your leg about. Nothing is automatic, I spent the whole walk looking at the floor and almost bumping into total strangers. It’s a good job I had a chaperone.
The following week I repeated the same walk alone. On the final stretch, on a slight incline parallel to the road, I was accompanied first by an old German Shepherd dog and then by the elderly gentleman who was walking him. The dog fell into step with me and we walked in companionable silence for a hundred yards or so until I paused for a rest. He also paused and then, after a minute or so, nudged my hand with his nose, looking up at me with his big brown eyes and cocking one ear. I leaned down to stroke him and then he walked on, stopping as if encouraging me to follow him which I did. This process repeated a couple of times until I looked behind, wondering why this lovely old dog was out alone. He wasn’t; his elderly owner, a well-dressed gentleman was a little way behind us, and once I had acknowledged him he fell into step and explained about the dog. Apparently the gentleman’s wife was disabled and walked with the aid of two sticks. The dog accompanied her every day for years, encouraging her to keep going and keeping her company, just as he had done with me. When his wife died, the gentleman took over the walking duties, but whenever the dog saw someone with crutches or a walking stick, he fell into step and resumed his duties. The man said that these duties seemed to give the old dog purpose and he would be content for the rest of the day. What a wonderful animal!
After a couple of weeks and with only one crutch, I started to look up and actually see the park again, and the paths no longer seemed such so treacherous. I saw the dog in the park several times, and each time he picked up where he left off padding quietly beside me, encouraging me if I paused. I have seen him recently and he came to say hello, but as my crutches had been discarded he chose to return to his owner. I felt suddenly abandoned and realised that I missed him. Time for a new challenge.
Over the next few weeks I gradually built up the frequency and duration of my walks until eventually, and with nervous confidence, I decided to venture out without the remaining crutch. My first walk was to the post box around the corner to post a birthday card for my niece – you have to start somewhere. The next was to the bus stop, and then at the other end on to the hospital for my discharge appointment with my surgeon, whose advice was “…ditch the crutch, keep up the physio and get back to normal.”
So, five weeks after surgery and two physio sessions completed, I followed his advice and took my first steps into the future. It was not all plain sailing as I have a tendency to overdo it which resulted in aching and a few restless nights as the muscles around my knee and in my upper leg complained at being woken from their two year slumber. But I persevered and went back to the gym; cycling to improve the bend in my knee and strengthen those withered quads, and walking on the treadmill to build up my pace and stamina, along with floor mat exercises – yes, the dreaded straight leg lift - and using the wobble board to reignite those small muscles around the knee which support you when walking on uneven ground. As I said, sometimes I woke the next day wondering if I had pushed it too far as my knee felt stiff and sore again, but gradually I began to feel stronger and walking began to feel more normal again.
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