My wife got her first knee replacement in 2014 and they put the wrong plastic spacer in it that was too small to work properly so within a year she had a revision where they put in the right sized plastic spacer between the upper unit and the lower unit of the knee replacement. Since you have to do this every 10 to 20 years (put in another plastic or nylon or whatever it is made of Spacer it isn't that difficult to do compared to the most painful hospital procedure of all which is a knee replacement. However, the alternative is often crutches for life or a wheelchair and I admire greatly my wife's perserverance because at this point 11 years later she has had both knees and both hips replaced. Her best friend has had both her hips replaced as well. So, they both know a little about the drastic pain in doing something like this, especially the knees.
A friend of mine had one knee replaced but had no one to care for him and has since passed away but not from that. He was 82 when he passed away which is pretty good for any man. For example, Two of my best friends passed away in 2006 and 2011.
My oldest friend from Sunday School at church at age 6 passed away at 62 years old and my best friend from Junior High and High School passed away in 2011 so he passed away at 63 in 2011. So, I have only one friend left from the old days of my growing up period that I started climbing mountains with when I was 21 years old and we climbed Mt. Shasta together to the top in August of 1970 and also rock climbed in Yosemite National Park with ropes and pitons as well and climbed various other places like Star King in Yosemite National Park too in the from 1969 to about 1973 when I got married and had my first child a son. Then I was more interested in staying alive so I could raise him right to adulthood (my son).
However, in 2015 I got a burst appendix which was bad enough and almost died from that for a week or so and then the operation once they figured out what was wrong for me with drilling holes in my belly including through my belly button, one of the holes they drilled to fill me with CO2 to work on me with robotic arms and stuff tore through coughing during the next month of coughing and lack of sleep. So, I got from the operation one month of coughing and sleep deprivation which gave me a hernia which is called a Naval hernia.
However, it tore to about 3 1/2 inches vertially and now it might be 4 or 5 inches vertically. However, when I went to see a specialist he told me that the way he would fix it would be to put a 1 foot by 1 foot piece of screening in place in that area to hold it together but it could be a 20% chance of permanent debilitating pain. I chose not to do this for a variety of reasons simply because of the potential life long pain but also the stainless steel hooks into my stomach muscles to Hopefully hold the screening in place.
So, I have learned to live with this for about 10 years now because this was 2015.
However, with a hernia belt that I wear that stretches and has velcro holding ability I can navigate my life except I'm not supposed to pick up more than 40 pounds even with the belt on.
For someone who used to lift off the ground my VW Bug from the front bumper when I used the VW like a 4 wheel drive in the wilderness even with snow to unstick it from mud or snow this is quite a comedown physically at least.
Also, I have ridden motorcycles, especially off road motorcycles since I was maybe 12 years old now I had to give up my 2009 KLR 650 to a friend which was very hard for me too because it ways between 375 pounds to 400 pounds and I can no longer pick up a bike like that because you are lifting onto the wheels about 150 to 200 pounds when it falls on the ground out in the dirt somewhere riding offroad.
The last time this happened was too embarrassing to continue because I was just trying to push start it because I was having clutch problems and it fell and I had to get 3 8 foot 2 by 4 douglas fir studs from my garage at home and ask my wife and a neighbor lady to help me lift it with the leverage of the 8 foot 2 by 4s which was pretty embarrassing.
I think this is all I can deal with talking about now even though I'm writing as a form of therapy I have reached my limit in self counseling to keep going today.
By God's Grace
I used to own a Honda 250 XL 1974 which was the best all around bike (except for going on the freeway) that I have ever owned. It was a dualsport so you could license it but it was powerful enough and light enough for any off road kind of thing I wanted to do.
Even my KLR 650 was great on the freeway or for riding around the world on literally any kind of paved or dirt road. However, you wouldn't want to jump it because it was too heavy for this I believe. However, I suppose younger guys might jump something like this if they are light enough in weight but I wouldn't especially because I'm presently 77 years old.
My friend in Shasta says I should get another HOnda 250 dualsport because he thinks I could lift it off the ground if it fell in the dirt. I really miss riding off road a lot so maybe that's what I will do.
I tried a fat tired electric bike I thought of buying but since I'm 6 foot 5 and my weight is so high I need something heavier to ride that is more stable. I didn't feel comfortable in the bike lane where I live on it because of this top heavy thing with this wide tired bike that could do 30 mph. It just didn't feel safe enough for me.
So maybe going back to a 250 dualsport of some kind might be the best for me because i mostly want to ride it either off road or on country roads with little or no traffic. However, then I would either have to trailer it or maybe get a trailer hitch carrier for my Tundra 4 wheel drive.
Oh. I found out that Tundra now makes a V6 20 mpg engine even with a four wheel drive which is what I get with my 2011 Tundra Four wheel drive that I bought new. I was despondent that they stopped building the small V8 because that was a wonderful engine that goes on forever especially with synthetic oil. guys are getting 300,000 miles out of that small V8 engine and I have pulled loaded Uhail Trailers with that as well several times including my KLR 650 in Uhaul trailer to MT> Shasta for a month to a house we rented for a month here in summer in 2010. The KLR 650 I gave to a friend so he could fix it up even though it still looks like new because I kept it in the garage safe out of the weather.
The other thing it's hard to do or impossible to do now is go places like down mountain riverbanks into rivers. I did it recently but thinking back on what I did was likely as dangerous as rock climbing a 5.0 climb in my 20s in my present condition with my hernia and what it did to my left hip. Since my hernia is on the right of my belly button it affects my left hip muscles a lot so it has made it harder to walk up and I can't stand very long. However, I walk my dog on the beach every day when I"m home. However, right now I'm looking up at Mt. Shasta from a terrace and it's presently86 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny out.
Beautiful weather! especially if you have air conditioning if you get too hot! 60 miles away in Redding it's 97 degrees which is HOT!
Anyway thank you for sharing in my group therapy. It helps me move forward in life and not just drop dead one day from disappointment.
Luckily, I still have a very good life and a very good wife and very good Children and Grandchildren so life is still pretty good even at 77.
By God's Grace
