Thursday, September 8, 2011

A visit with the surgeon

So I will start off by saying that I have never met a happier doctor in my life!  It was more like visiting a kid who was excited to tell me about his trip to the amusement park or his new game system rather than a surgeon who was telling me that he was going to stick a huge hollow needle in me and scrape the inside of my knee while sucking out pieces of cartilage.

As much as it is a first impression, I really like this doctor ... as much as I can like somebody who is going to stick a huge hollow needle in me.  He is very informative, he actually listened to me and talked to me with thorough explanations about the 5 different issues with my knee.  He even found a nice way to tell me that one of the issues is that I'm just getting old and my knees are wearing out.

The biggest and worst issue is the torn meniscus ... thus the surgery.  The torn MCL is low grade and should heal by itself.  The patellar tendinosis (which is known as jumoers knee ... like I've done any jumping in the last 10 years) is aggravated by the meniscus and MCL injuries, and will likely correct itself once my knee is back to near normal.

If the surgery will relieve the pain even just partially, then I'm looking forward to getting this procedure.  I will definitely have to ask specific questions about how quickly the incisions will heal so I can get back in the pool (not that I've been eagerly awaiting any swimming, but it is less stressful on the knees than running), how soon I can return to spin class and how much tension I can use, and most importantly how soon I can go back to the all you can eat sushi place ... oh, and maybe what exercises or therapy will help strengthen the knee and how soon I will be able to run.

The doctor says 4 days of taking it easy (not stay in bed, but not get up and around too much eother) and on day 5 I start walking to rehab the knee.  I am relieved how simple this sounds.









Pics of my knee ... or at least the MRI.

Ummm ... The bagel is not part of my knee. It was my treat to myself :-)

3 comments:

  1. I think this is all good news? Not as good as **poof** "you're healed!" But not "you have 2 days left to live" either...

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  2. It's going to be a piece of cake ^_^

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  3. I could swear that that last picture is a bagle ... not a piece of cake - but, hey, I've been wrong before... ^_^;

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