6 March 2024
How is it March??? How is it possible that Daylight Saving Time starts this weekend??? If we were going to stick with one time instead of changing, my vote goes to sticking with Standard Time. But, we still change time here in Illinois, and, truth be told, I don’t really mind it much at all :-)
On Monday, I went downtown to have the MRIs done on both my knees.
The results dropped into my MyChart yesterday morning and I spoke with the surgeon yesterday afternoon. There has been some revision to my previous post. The MRI results were upsetting and kinda scary-sounding, and a lot of that has to do with not understanding what so many of the medical orthopedic terms actually mean. And trust me, Googling them is NOT a great plan . . .
Here’s what I know now: To my great dismay, I DO have arthritis and I have it in both my knees. I’ve known for many years that I have inflammation in my body, but never had any joint damage, so no arthritis. But with these two MRIs that is no longer the case. There is arthritis in varying degrees in both my knees. I already knew that the right meniscus has been torn for 8+ years, but now, the MRIs confirmed that he left meniscus is torn now, as well, from my injury on November 1st. So, now, I have a matching set of torn lateral menisci. It sounds funny but it’s not. The rest of the story is that I started PT last week, and it’s going pretty well. I’m also icing twice a day. Things hurt, but we’re giving it 4 – 6 weeks to see how I do. It’s possible that PT will do the trick and get things calmed back down, but in truth it’s possible that that could be a bit of magical thinking.
If PT doesn’t do the trick, next steps might include one (and only one) cortisone short in each knee. I’m not keen on cortisone and neither is my surgeon, so this might not occur. Another possible step is to have minimally invasive arthroscopic surgery on both my knees where the surgeon would go in, repair the menisci and clean up the rest of the mess that both of my bordering-on-elderly wonky knees seem to be. The surgeon seemed relatively clear that somewhere down the line I will likely have to have total knee replacements in both my knees. But I don’t need them yet, and I’m very focused on doing my PT religiously and staying in the present as I give my knees the time/space they might need to heal.
I’m a little disheartened at what I’m facing, but I don’t have to face it today. My job right now is to do my best with PT and icing. What happens tomorrow or the next day will happen however it’s supposed to. There are a lot of moving parts and stuff that I have no actual control over, and I’m doing my best to shift my mindset to a place where I can see what might be coming, but remain focused on staying in the present.
I have to say that I’m pretty glad I’m not still working, because walking as much as I used to on these wonky knees would not be very much fun. I’m not even getting out much to walk around the pond in the past couple of weeks because things seem to be worse lately. Going downstairs is challenging and I find myself avoiding stairs whenever possible. Sitting too long causes sharp pain when standing. In the morning my knees often feel like glass. Once I get going, I’m usually OK, it’s just the standing up and taking the first steps. I’m seriously glad to have “comfort height” toilets in this house because neither of my knees are bending very well at the moment. I’ve found that my mobility has really taken a hit in the past few weeks. I restarted my Tai Chi practice last month and now I’m thinking I might have to switch to chair Tai Chi for awhile as my legs and knees were way more sore this morning than usual after class last night. Yeah, kinda sucks to be me at the moment.
BUT I know things won’t be like this forever. I have a great doctor and I’m very compliant with all the PT exercises I’m asked to do. If I can get the inflammation under control and calmed back down things will be a lot less painful. I hope it will be a long time before I actually need to contemplate a surgery, arthroscopic or otherwise. Cross your fingers for me.
Sometimes you just need to hear some Steve Perry. No one else will do.