Leading indicator
Sep. 18th, 2026 09:35![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bill_schubertI had an hour and a half of pickleball drills yesterday. I've been doing it every week. It is fun in and of itself but also improves my game. BUT increasingly it has demonstrated how bad my right knee is, pretty much the only major original equipment joint I have left. I didn't play this morning because of the knee.
There are five or six indicators of when it is time to replace a joint and I'm hitting four of them. I can do daily stuff just fine although I feel a painful twinge occasionally. I can still do resistance training but definitely have a weaker side on the right doing things like lunges. It is not screaming pain but close.
It would be easy for me to just go on and not do anything and I really, really want to do that. I've gotten injections and really work the leg with resistance work so it is as strong as I can make it right now. But the shot was not as effective last time, not nearly so, and my leg is not getting better no matter how much I work it.
It almost feels like I've already made the decision but I'm maybe a week away holding out hope that the painful twinge I get when I reach out to the right to get a ball is transitory and I can train through it.
UGH.
Nothing on the schedule after the end of October so we'll see.
There are five or six indicators of when it is time to replace a joint and I'm hitting four of them. I can do daily stuff just fine although I feel a painful twinge occasionally. I can still do resistance training but definitely have a weaker side on the right doing things like lunges. It is not screaming pain but close.
It would be easy for me to just go on and not do anything and I really, really want to do that. I've gotten injections and really work the leg with resistance work so it is as strong as I can make it right now. But the shot was not as effective last time, not nearly so, and my leg is not getting better no matter how much I work it.
It almost feels like I've already made the decision but I'm maybe a week away holding out hope that the painful twinge I get when I reach out to the right to get a ball is transitory and I can train through it.
UGH.
Nothing on the schedule after the end of October so we'll see.
no subject
Date: 2026-09-26 15:43 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-09-26 16:48 (UTC)Yeah, of course, that's the problem. It will never get much better but if I rest the knee it is quite functional. Then I'll play pickleball for a couple of hours or a few successive days and I can no longer play. My mobility is shot.
Of course the presumption that I'd be much better at pickleball if I had a fully functioning right knee is, I suspect, a fallacy.
So from the perspective of day to day it is OK. I strengethen it and flex it and all the stuff I should do to keep it right.
But part of my day to day is very active or should be.
Round and round.