Knee Saga Part 5--The Dawning

Your knees don't allow you to run anymore, but who cares.  It's kind of unseemly at this age anyway.  You can't walk as far without the clinking noise starting up, but you don't actually need to walk very far after all. You, as your mother used to do, latch on to a grocery cart as soon as possible: it makes walking much easier.  Then you seek out shopping carts in department stores; it's amazing that dropping your purse in that little black cart makes shopping so much easier, with proper balance being restored.  You avoid at all costs taking the stairs in the company of others; who wants to be seen two-footing down each step.  Going upstairs is not so hard as long as there's a handrail.  And almost all places have elevators or escalators, so you don't have to strain yourself pretending you can descend a staircase without effort.  (You'll pay later.)  But one day you're in the library checking out a book when your knee makes such a loud pop that the librarian is startled.  Nothing, you say.  Again in a public place, you're standing in front of a ledge, almost but not quite a seat, when suddenly without your consent, you're sitting on that ledge.  Surprising, but not painful.   Another morning, you're walking down the hall when without warning, your knee locks in place, refuses to bear any weight.  Scary, but it soon goes away.  What may, possibly (not sure yet), be the last straw occurs when you are making a purchase at Boscov's when there is a loud explosive noise and your knee slides out of place directly into the cashier's desk, with a thud.  The cashier asks, confused, what happened and you answer something like you slipped.  You don't exactly know what has happened, but your guess would be that your femur has slipped off your tibia.  There was no pain; could all your nerve endings be destroyed?  Not likely, but still you wonder. 
   Not a single person in the world knows what the sum of your experiences has been; you have found your health issues to be a topic of non-interest to others.  The saying goes that no one cares about your troubles and many are glad you've got them, so keep your own counsel.  The young and the beautiful, the famous even if flawed, may have an audience, but not your average elderly.  So you ponder......TBC