Returning to the forums after about 3.5 years.
First started hanging out here in late 2009. Started out sucking wind to ride 8 flat miles; got to the point where I was taking week-long, 350+ mile cycling vacations for a few summers in a row. Last time I did something like that was 2015.
Things went kerflooey in early 2016. Had sudden, very severe, knee pain. Couldn't even ride 8 flat miles anymore -- not a matter of sucking wind, but my knees couldn't push the bike along, even in "granny" gear. Things got worse until one day in summer 2016 when I needed to walk backwards down stairs to leave the house to get to a doctor's appointment.
Eventually, found medicines that helped me with what turned out to be rheumatoid arthritis. Spent a while having my husband drive me to work; then started feeling well enough that I could commute on an e-bike.
Now I'm just starting to ride under my own power again -- up to eleven miles on a towpath near my house. And this week I rode my bike to my rheumatologist's office!
So I'm starting to poke my nose back into the Forums. I may spend more time over on 50+ than here -- I feel more creaky than large, even though I've regained 35+ pounds since my knees let me know, very definitively, that Something Was Wrong.
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- Jeneralist