A Favourite Tool: My Knee Pads

Back in the 1980’s I had a problem sitting.  I even ate my meals lying on the floor.  No, it wasn’t hemorrhoids, it was a bad back.  I remember stacking pills just to sit through a movie. (It was the western, Silverado, and I wasn’t in good enough shape to do a proper body count).  After weeks of no improvement, I waited patiently like a good Canadian for more weeks, and I finally got to see a surgeon who got the ball rolling after even more weeks.

I got to participate in the beginning of New Technology.  For the very first time my surgeon and his resident used twin stereoscopic microscopes!  The resident later exclaimed while waving his hands: “You Could See Everything!”  So, instead of a seven-inch incision they used a four inch one and instead of a seven day hospital stay it was a four day one.  They removed my lumbar 5 disc.  

Nowadays they roll you in for day surgery, make a couple of tiny holes, send in a scope and snips and nip off the bulge on the disc, then send you back home the same day.  At least my operation wasn’t during the dark ages just a few years earlier where they’d borrow a piece of bone from somewhere else and fuse your spine at the missing link.

They kept me in the neuro ward and the staff liked us back guys because we felt better after we woke up (less pain) whereas all the other patients felt worse.  My back steadily improved and I returned to work, having only missed four months including an illegal wildcat strike a phone in sick event, (which was a Godsend since I only book sick when I’m sick and would have been in trouble with my union brothers).

From those days on, I’ve always had the back of a 65 year old.  But it worked and it didn’t hurt if I was careful.  A visit to someone’s place and I still always head away from the couch and towards any hard chair.  Now that I’ve finally caught up with my back’s age we’re aging together again.  And we’re not getting any younger.

With that disc missing, squatting in the garden is now mostly out.  I can do it, but I’ll feel it later.  Kneeling in the path and turning isn’t as easy as it used to be but kneeling it will be.  And to do that comfortably I use my Knee Pads.

Nothing too technical, just good thick heavy foam with single Velcro straps.  Eventually the Velcro gives out before the rest does, so I keep extra pieces of Velcro for replacement.  My Red Green Handyman’s method of stitching in replacement Velcro pieces isn’t duct tape but an office stapler.

Eventually there is a strap or pad failure and at least one knee pad must be completely replaced. (hence the two different colours of my current set).  I even wear them when up my orchard ladder in the winter while pruning my fruit trees and vines.  They keep my knees nice and warm while leaning against the cold metal ladder rungs.

As I’m getting older I’m feeling my gardening movements more and more.  But that’s par for the course when closing in on the finish line.  Gardening keeps me loose and in half decent shape when you include lots of walking.  And at the end of the day when I’m stiff and sore there’s always that other Favourite Tool:  the Hot Bath.

Happy Gardening.