As I write this on a Monday morning, my legs are encased in sleeves that run from foot to hip while a pump massages both with 50 pounds of compression each hour.

The treatment is part of a daily routine that starts each morning and repeats just before I go to bed each night.

After a morning shower, wife Amy helps me pull on tight compression socks before I apply leg stiffening leggings held in place by velcro and compression wraps.

The routine lets me walk gingerly with a cane or crutches.

After a near-fatal motorcycle accident more than a decade ago, my right leg is held together by pins, braces and rods. The left leg was broken too.

For someone who used to roam the sidelines of football fields or basketball courts, shooting photos and/or video, the limitations of age and too many injuries suggest a difficult adjustment.

So are recommended surgeries from orthopedic doctors at Carilion. They say I need to replace my left shoulder with a mechanical one, removed a bone spur that is ripping my right shoulder muscles apart and replace both knees ASAP.

At age 78, can my shopworn body handles going under a surgeon’s knife?

Time, I guess, will tell.