The Toddler Descent

A Grown-Up Guide to Navigating Stairs with Arthritic Knees

Let’s be honest—aging isn’t for the faint of heart. Especially when your knees decide they’ve had enough of your nonsense. Mine? They’ve staged a full-blown rebellion. And nowhere is their mutiny more obvious than on the stairs.

Step One: Accept the Toddler Within Gone are the days of bounding up steps two at a time. Now, I descend like a cautious toddler—one step at a time, gripping the railing like it’s the last lifeline on a sinking ship. And you know what? Toddlers rarely fall. They’ve got it figured out.

Step Two: Lead with the Good Leg (and a Good Attitude) “Up with the good, down with the bad.” It’s not just a physical strategy—it’s a life motto. I take the wins where I can get them, even if it means celebrating a successful descent like I just finished a triathlon.

Step Three: Embrace the Accessories Ice packs, braces, topical creams, and a device called an Enso that sounds like it should be brewing tea but actually zaps my knee into behaving. I’ve got more gear than a minor league athlete—and I’m not afraid to use it.

Step Four: Laugh When You Can Because if I don’t laugh, I’ll cry—and crying makes my nose stuffy, which is just one more thing to deal with. So instead, I write. I share. I connect. And I remind myself that even if my knees are cranky, my spirit is still doing cartwheels.

This post was written by Bing AI but it was created through a conversation discussing my current knee pain issues.