Glucosimine and Chondroitin They Worked for Me

The kitchen sink was stopped up and rather than call a plumber, which we couldn’t afford, my Mom told me to have a look at it. My plumbing skills were at the time, between none and the recent memory of a couple of This Old House reruns. I squeezed myself into the tiny space under the sink, my knees up against my chest and my head bent at an uncomfortable angle. There were pipes and it smelled a damp and old metal. I twisted my legs to get a better lay of the land, when there came a loud pop from my left knee. Since I had been popping my knuckles for most of my life, I didn’t pay much attention to it. Until I tried to stand up. Tried being the optimum word here.
Since we had no money for a plumber, need I say we had no money for a doctor either? I shook the leg and walked it off, as they say on the sports shows on tv.
I thought all was well. But I did something unpleasant to my knee that day thirty or so years ago, and it has never really forgiven me. Once in a while the pain strikes with enough severity that I can barely walk. I have discovered that wrapping the knee for an hour or two will ease the pain at these times.
I don’t go to a doctor now, when I can afford it, as I am afraid of what the doc might tell me. That I may need surgery, or a knee replacement, or even just a cortisone shot sounds kind of scary. Being a man, I am a huge coward when it comes to doctors. This does not mean that I have not tried every crackpot remedy for most of the ills that have befallen me. Which brings me to Glucosamine and Chondroitin. These are a couple of geez whiz things that claim to rebuild the cushioning around your joints and make them young again. Or at least, work better. This stuff works.
A few weeks ago my knee hurt enough that I was thinking of going to see the doctor, one more day of this, and that is that. But during that one day, I thought I would give glucosamine a try again. In three days the pain is just a slight twinge of memory, if five it was gone altogether.
Just to be clear, I went from limping around with my knee wrapped to sprinting up stairs two at a time.
I have been taking all sorts of vitamins, minerals and supplements for the past twenty years or so. Some of them I take as needed, like Glucosamine and Chondroitin, others I take every day, like Ginkgo Bilbo and a daily multivitamin. The problem with taking things as needed, is that you can forget to take them at all until you really need it. I’ll stop taking the Glucosamine and Chondroitin once I run out the two bottles that I bought. That should do me for a while. Until I need them again.

---