Two Good Legs To Stand On

With each step, each rising or lowing from a chair, her face showed the depth of her pain.  Over the past two years I watched my love's body bend to the arthritis that was overtaking her knees.   She withstood injections and stomached potent pills, but the pain increased.  By last fall her legs began to bow, an inch in height robbed from her.  She knew action, dramatic action, must be taken.

Four weeks ago I watched her take a huge, brave step...with faith and hope that the next and the next and the next would lead to repair and relief.  My Mo hobbled into Hackensack Medical Center for double-knee replacement surgery.  I watched the doctor mark in ballpoint pen on both of her legs just before they wheeled her down the hall, away from me.  I didn't breath very well until I saw her five hours later, in the recovery room enveloped in bubble wrap and blankets to keep her warm. Two short days later, with three IVs in her arms, bandages, ice packs, leg braces and every drug known to human kind, she was walking....walking!  They were tentative first steps, but ones we knew would lead to less and less pain.

It's a roller coaster ride to face a dramatic step that doesn't bring a guarantee of perfect results.  It takes the kind of faith I've always admired in my Mo.  Don't get me wrong, she isn't sitting around waiting for the fates and angels to magically mend her bones, muscles and tendons.  With strength of body, soul and mind she tackles the excruciating exercises; patiently applies bone-chilling ice to her sores; puts up with my over-protectiveness and pleas for "little steps, little steps!"

Once again I step back and watch in awe the courageous woman I love as she not only overcomes adversity, but brings it to its knees!