Houston, We Have a Problem...

As many of you noticed, I haven't been writing. In fact, it's been almost 2 months.

Why should I continue to write when it's the same thing over and over: "Knee hurts... knee hurts... oh yeah, the knee hurts."

It started to wear on me... not just the pain, but the constant "negativity" I felt I was expressing.

Over the past few months, I've also been frustrated. Frustrated with the pain, the lack of improvement, and in general, the overall mobility.

I've also had to listen to my parents harp on the fact that I should get a second opinion. They weren't that thrilled with my previous surgeon. And, coincidently, Joel had to go under the knife with his knee surgeon due to a torn meniscus just two weeks ago.

Lately I've been waking up in the middle of the night with, you guessed it, knee pain. I figured it's because I've been walking more. However, it started to bug me (mentally) - "Why if I'm told to walk more is the knee always hurting? It's been 7 months since my last surgery... shouldn't it be getting better and not worse?"

So with what I'm experiencing and feeling with the knee, as well as the voices of the 2 biggest hypochondriacs in the world, I decided, "OK, fine!" and made an appointment. Well, the appointment was today.

Dr. Ramsey is very personable - in fact, it's his practice. He's the only doctor and all he focuses on are knees.

The first person I met with was the nurse, who took down all of my information. She took a ton of notes - asked questions from "what happened" to "what's going on right now." Oh yeah, she asked, "Does it wake you up at night?"

Then they took several X-Rays. Normally I would get 2 per visit at the previous doctor. I think they took 5 this time - particularly, with my knee bent and weight distributed on it.

Then Dr. Ramsey came in. He asked a bunch of questions. And he asked me again, "Does it wake you up at night?" Hmm... must be something to this...

He had already reviewed the X-Rays, so he had an idea of what it looked like inside. While lying down, he moved the knee around to check for motion (actually, he moved both so he could get an understanding of what is normal for me).

He then did something extremely painful - he started poking the sides of my knees. Let's just cut to the chase: It was SO freakin' painful that my eyes watered! I was telling someone earlier, but I generally think the entire knee is just in pain. And, I usually focus on the kneecap. But he was pushing on the sides, particularly the meniscus, and I couldn't believe the streaks of pain shooting up from my leg!

Which led him to this: "You may have bone fragments and a possible tear in your meniscus."

Yippy Skippy...

(sarcasm)

Yes... surgery is a possibility if that's a true statement.

So here's what's going on: On Wednesday I'm going in for an MRI and I'll get the film/cd that day and deliver it to Dr. Ramsey. He'll review it and then give me a call. According to my parents, he's very involved with his patients so I should know something by the end of the week.

Speaking of the end of the week, he's prescribed Physical Therapy for me. Remember, previous doctor didn't think I needed it. While I probably should have had it back in December, at least now I have the opportunity to "learn" some techniques that I can do in the gym. PT is not going to be extensive - like 1 or 2 weeks.

He was also very honest with me. He said I probably will never run again. He also said I should avoid stairs. Instead, I need to focus on biking... swimming... eliptical. And, ahem, I need to lose weight. Also, wear soft-soled shoes. He said all of that should help.

I'm to ramp up the glucosamine + chondroitin - regularly taking that will help my joints. He also added taking 2 advil per day...

So there you have it.

I'll update the blog later in the week if there are more developments. I just can't believe I may have to have a 3rd surgery on this knee...