Just as I was starting to emerge from being homebound for much of February, I had to go back into seclusion. In the earlier case, I was recovering from knee replacement surgery. Now I am observing a statewide quarantine to stem the spread of COVID-19.
When I was virtually immobilized by the stiffness of my post-surgical right knee, at least I had sports to follow. As I sat on the couch and put my leg through the excruciating extensions and contractions of physical therapy, I welcomed the distractions of televised European soccer in midday and NBA or college basketball in the evening. I was able to view UCSB basketball and baseball games on streaming live video.
It was with mixed emotions that I had chosen to undergo the replacement surgery. It was not a life-or-death situation (hence, elective surgeries are not being performed while the medical community braces for coronavirus cases). I could still get around, even ride a bike, with my creaky knees, both of them bone-on-bone arthritic. But the right one ached constantly and acutely, 54 years after it had undergone an operation that excised most of the cartilage. My surgeon said he found old sutures from that procedure when he cleaned out the joint last month.