I have thoroughly cleaned a toilet, and I am feeling triumphant about it.
Even after months of physical therapy for my knee replacement, and being assured by multiple professionals that I MAY kneel on that new knee, I have not been able to COMFORTABLY kneel on that knee. It feels Wrong. In part this is because that knee is still numb, more than it is supposed to be—and I can tell it is more numb than it is supposed to be, because the surgeon’s PA keeps trying to act surprised/incredulous, and also as if it’s fine (“Technically you don’t NEED to kneel ever again,” she says, age 32 and I’ll bet still doing plenty of kneeling herself without seeing it as unnecessary), and/or as if I am confused or imagining it (“Well, it WILL be permanently numb over HERE, but you’ll only notice that when shaving!”—indicating an area adjacent to the numb area, which is indeed also numb), alternately. Kneeling on it feels the way it does if you put weight on something swollen/numb/sore—which is to say, my body gives me immediate, strong feedback that NO YOU SHOULD NOT DO THIS: it is a combination of Intense Discomfort and also Panic. And yet: all the professionals agree that I am not doing any actual damage if I kneel on it, and that I can ignore those signals. DON’T listen to your body!—as all the professionals constantly tell us.
Well. I don’t know about you, but actually I used to kneel quite often, and consider(ed) it pretty important. Perhaps that is WHY I ended up having to have a knee replaced relatively young, for what the surgeon described as “wear-and-tear” damage. I definitely used to kneel to clean toilets, and to clean the shower floor, and to clean the bathroom floors. And now I feel stuck, because I married a man who has never cleaned any of those things and never will, and when I hired housecleaners they stole from us.
I can kneel on the OTHER knee, though perhaps that is not wise if I want to keep it. And also: it turns out that kneeling on one knee is about 1/10th as useful as kneeling on both. (Try it! It is…surprising.) For one thing, it is harder to move around: if I am down on one knee, and I need to change position, I have to sort of HITCH and SCOOT. Also: I get uncomfortable much more quickly. Also: it’s all just so frustrating. I have wept over it. Am I glad I had the knee surgery?, lots of people want to know. Yes. But.
I bought a gardening kneeler, but that was much too firm and didn’t help. I can kneel on, for example, a mattress (the physical therapist had me do my practice-kneeling on a mattress), so I have wondered if maybe it would be best to put a small plump squooshy soft pillow into a plastic bag (germ/chemical protection for the absorbent pillow, since I am dealing with bathroom floors and cleaning supplies), and kneel on THAT. But tonight what I did was I knelt on a combination of (1) the original knee and (2) the surgically-replaced knee, placed carefully/judiciously on the pile of towels I was about to launder anyway, which I had cast onto the floor. That worked pretty well. I still had to scoot around a bit, because I found I still didn’t want to kneel much on the replaced knee, even if on towels. But! I was down on the floor, and I was able to thoroughly clean a toilet that badly needed it, and that felt very satisfying and good. (The toilet has not gone nine months uncleaned. When Henry was still here, Henry cleaned it. But he left in late August. Since then I have frequently scrubbed the toilet bowl, and have sprayed/wiped the toilet ring/seat, and have sprayed/wiped the floor in front of the toilet (blood rushing to my head as I leaned down) because of who I married—but today is the first time since January I’ve cleaned THE WHOLE ENTIRE THING and THE ENTIRE FLOOR AROUND IT. I feel HIGH. …and perhaps in need of more sources of joy and satisfaction in my life.)
I was so invigorated by this success that I went on to clean multiple things I could have cleaned at any time without kneeling: the half-bath sink, the kitchen sink, the toothbrush cup, etc. And I have cycled two loads of laundry, and ordered a few Christmas gifts. One triumph leads to more triumphs, and I don’t know why I cannot fully incorporate this knowledge.
Well that IS a triumph.
The lingering numbness and the medical professional’s very weird take on the lingering numbness sound maddening.
But! The toilet is CLEAN. How satisfying that must be.
You should get a little cushion they make for kneeling to give kids a bath.
Instead of kneeling, what about sitting on a low stepstool? I messed up one of my knees a few months ago and have been avoiding kneeling on it, and this is how I solve the problem of having to do something close to the floor. Congrats on the clean toilet!
I have had trouble with kneeling making my knees hurt, so I bought this 13″ stool (I am 5′ 6″; if I were any taller, I might want the 16″), hoping I would be able to sit on it and get some weeding done. It has been just right! It is lightweight but sturdy, and it conveniently and easily folds up for easy carrying and storing. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LYW5BFB?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_2&th=1
I have had rheumatoid arthritis (with particularly bad inflammation in my knees) since my teens. I have never once kneeled to clean my bathroom and honestly spent several moments thinking to figure out why you would. I realized that I often sit on my bottom and many people wouldn’t want to do that. (I wear “house cleaning clothes” for dirtier chores and change when I’m done.) A low step stool is a good idea.
I don’t have any conditions at all, but I don’t think I’ve ever kneeled to clean a toilet. I either crouch on my toes or bend from my waist. I do sometimes need to kneel on my knees to clean a floor with my hands (I don’t use a mop) but even then I think I spend a chunk of the time crouching/bending.
First off that is super frustrating, having knee replacement solve some problems but also create huge new ones!!!
Have you ever tried Duluth trading companies heirloom gardening overalls? They have knee pad insert space and a couple different kind of squishy inserts. There is also currently a very cute hedgehog pattern. If you wait it out you can most likely find some in the right size on sale, but with less color options. I do a lot of gardening and it’s nice to just have the knees pads inserted in your pants so you don’t have to carry anything around.
Isn’t it amazing what we take for granted in our bodies, and we only really notice the incredible things our bodies can do when we can’t do them anymore! I felt that way after a hip injury, that I would never again take for granted things like “walking without limping” and “standing up without agonizing pain.”
That said, I think I’m not maybe cleaning my toilets thoroughly enough. I mean, I scrub the bowl. I wipe them down. But I don’t really get down and around on the floor, I sort of mop that area. Hmm. Maybe I need to up my game!
Or maybe Swistle should switch to mopping that area! I think that’s reasonably clean (very clean, in fact)!
Augh to the knee. I also have been told I need to ignore my body over *here* but listen to my body very carefully over *there* and it is very tricky to ignore some louder pain signals and listen for some quieter pain signals, but: the ones that are trying to build a self-reinforcing pathway but are not being informative do need to be ignored, and the ones that are signaling the early signs that I will reinjure something do need to have attention paid to them and behavior changed so… sigh. Yep. Listen to your body except…
And HOORAY! Congratulations on getting the toilet done to your satisfaction! And for the rolling success – yes! Progress can lead to more progress (at least until you have done enough that you need to take a nap). :-) I also need to figure out how to… deploy?… this fact in my life.
I’m so sorry that you’ve had so much trouble with your knee replacement. The numbness doesn’t sound nice at all. I’m glad you can celebrate a clean toilet as a win! I’m not good at kneeling anymore either, and I don’t want to completely wreck my knees, so I’ve gotten some long-handled cleaning tools that help me reach places so I don’t have to kneel. It’s not the same though. But it’s good enough. The good news is, my eyes are terrible, so I can’t see all the dirt! Ha! Ha!
My mom had a long recovery with her knee replacement, too. Her main problem was stiffness, not numbness, but it’s a hard thing for the body to adjust to, I guess. Congrats on your toilet victory.
Sure, one triumph leads to another triumph, but ALSO one job leads to another! Maybe that’s why full incorporation feels impossible. I will go to put something in the laundry room, and there are clean clothes on the dryer, so I fold them. Then I realize there are clean clothes IN the dryer, so I fold them and then I put the clothes from the washer to the dryer and hang the clothes that need to be hung to dry, THEN I will do another load of laundry and then and only then can I go back in the house. I bring in the laundry and put it away and then upstairs I’ll notice there are towels on the floor so I put them in a basket and go back downstairs and before I know it, one precious hour has passed and all I was going to do was put a pair of socks in the laundry room! Never ending is not a strong enough phrase for it all.
When my kids were little, I always felt like there should be parenting awards for things like: putting a fitted sheet on a top bunk, cleaning vomit out of a car seat, etc. But my kids are grown now and I’m starting to think there should just be good human awards in general, for doing things like the toilet or getting up early to work out.
My knees are bony and kneeling always hurts. I use this for yoga or any other life-kneeling experiences: https://snapklik.com/en-ca/product/0WKI4PC7EX775 Pretty sure I got mine at Marshall’s!
It seems that the post-op experience is (often, sometimes) different than what one expects. No real suggestion here, but it sounds maddening.
HI! First time commenter here. I enjoy your blog and look forward to your posts! I had two knee replacements and am thrilled with the results EXCEPT I feel incredibly uncomfortable kneeling. You have described the feeling beautifully. I am five years out and I hate to tell you the kneeling does not improve. There is still that weird “I should not be doing this” numbness. So I bend over to do stuff. A lot. Which provides my neighbours with a not so great view when I am gardening. And also doesn’t do much for my lumbar region. But hey. I can climb stairs. And go down stairs. And walk. And get up from low chairs. With little pain. Do I wish it were better? Yes. But for me, it was a fair trade off, even with the silver racing stripes (scars) over my kneecaps (Orthopedic surgeons are not delicate with a stapler). And as a Canadian, it was free. So, there’s that. But I feel you and I wish things could be better. I have yoga to do and toilets to clean!