11/23/12 – Friday – I try something drastic this Friday morning; I go out walking again. I’ve been so scared to do this without a cane since my balance has been so off and my stupid right knee/leg, in its infinite wisdom, decides arbitrarily that it doesn’t want to hold my weight out of nowhere. But I seemed to be walking better last night and this morning. It is a Catch-22 situation; when I don’t walk or try exercising my quads, I don’t have the pain when I go from sitting to standing. Yet, if I don’t use my leg it gets weaker and weaker, with my quads atrophying as well as my calf. My leg then gets so weak that my knee stops healing and I never get better. I simply do not know what the answer is at this point. It is so frustrating because today I was proud and almost happy that I could somewhat walk halfway decently—-albeit on my right toe because of the uneven hips–but not too bad. Then I did some light squats holding on which do not put stress on the knees. Nevertheless, when I sat in my car and went to get out, BAM, same old shit. My knee locked up like glue and I had to wait until I could straighten it out (painfully) to walk at all. Some days I have hope, when I can walk without pain and then out of nowhere my hope is dashed when my stupid knee decides to not work again. So, should I do no exercise and not rehab my back, continue the further deterioration of my right leg through atrophy, or do the exercise and not be able to walk at all afterwards. I pray and pray for some kind of help and suddenly it seems to come in the form of simply being able to walk. I then feel like I have finally turned the corner and then there is the cruelest joke of all, my knee is back to being painful and stiff. Part of the problem is that my leg(s) are still stiff and numb. My knees are especially numb due to the spinal nerve still being inflamed. The continual numbness probably prevents my knee from healing properly. Since the biggest problem is my entire right leg, the knee never gets better. As always people have to comment on my limp and cane (when I use it) necessitating me to explain my problems. I am tired as hell of doing this. I am afraid to get up because I figure my leg will be so stiff I won’t be able to unbend it for a while. It is so sad and I am tired of all this. I go to Starbucks to have a pumpkin spice latte, YUM. That always makes me feel better temporarily. I go home and I feel really good—-the best I have felt in a while. All of a sudden my right leg seems to have strength and I can walk relatively well. Since I feel decent, I decide to do tons of cleaning. I then go over to Janet’s house for “Thanksgiving” and have a surprisingly good time.