I would like to think I have a pretty high tolerance for pain.
Deyanira may disagree with me, since she was in the room when Carli was born. BUT I'm not talking baby deliveries.
I'm talking my knee. Well, knees actually. The past several months I've been tripping and falling. My left knee has been pretty painful. No medicine will relieve the pain. At night, I could cry. First thing in the morning or after I've sit for a while, my knee stiffens up and it's hard to move it. I have a hard time lifting my leg, like to put on my pants,socks and shoes, step into the shower, climb in my car, etc. I can walk only because I don't bend my leg and I use more of my right knee.
I can not bend my leg and can't fully straighten my leg.
Finally I decided I should go to the doctor.
I had an MRI.
My left knee showed that I have severe osteo arthritis, severe swelling, and a cyst formed from joint leakage.
My right knee is now hurting more, and the doctor says that's just a given. It's because I've used that right knee more now, causing more joint damage than what was already there.
I had an orthopedic doctor appointment on Halloween. She said that on a scale of 1-4, 4 being severe, bone on bone-no cartilage, I'm at a 3 on my left knee and right knee is about a 2. She said, "no wonder you're in so much pain and have not come sooner".
We went over my options. For now, we do what we can to relieve the pain and put off surgery as long as possible. Basically, we are "coating or putting a band aid over the problems, to buy us time." and we hope it works. She doesn't want surgery for me now. She thinks I'm too young to have this (YES, almost 39 is no spring chicken, BUT I'm NOT OLD! Ha!) and that would put me out of commission for a long time, kind of hard for me when I'm a mom to three and my oldest is mentally disabled with seizures. No time for surgery.
So, this is what we try for now. I start taking Bio Flex Ultra vitamins to help my joints. We may end up going toward injections. I will begin physical therapy, twice a week, for an hour each time. This will help with my range of motion. More importantly, they will tape my knee. What this means is that they will tape it so that the knee cap (which is crooked) is lifted off of the other bone, to relieve the rubbing and severe edema. We will re-evaluate in six weeks.
I thought back in the summer, what started this knee pain, was when I trip and fell during moving, landing on my knee. The doctor said no. When I fell, I did hurt my knee, but that it was a good thing, it just let me know that this was already happening. She said that my knees have always been bad to start out with. That the ligament in my thigh that connects to my knee, to make it bend, was working over time. It was having to stretch more to the side instead of straight down, since my knee cap was crooked and to the side. This is what has caused the arthritis.
Waaaa :(
Crazy stuff! I surely didn't think any of this when I went to my first doctor appointment.
