Orthopedic Appointment

Since I mentioned the appointment with the orthopedic surgeon, I guess I should share what happened. To make a long story short – according to the MRI, my x-rays, my symptoms and her manipulations, I appear to be a good candidate for arthroscopic knee surgery. I have some degenerate arthritis in the knee and also a torn meniscus (that is cartilage), both of which could be causing me pain; however, the promising aspect is all my pain is on the side of the tear and none is on the side with the arthritis. The surgeon thinks all indications are the pain is coming from the torn meniscus in my knee. She showed us the tear on the MRI and said she could almost guarantee that in the last two years (I had the MRI a couple of years ago) the tear had become bigger – hence more pain. I do remember going bowling some time after the MRI and REALLY messing up my knee and the pain increased from that point on (never tried bowling again). When I try to pinpoint the area of pain, it coincides to the precise area of the meniscus tear. The surgery is done on an outpatient basis and you can stand on your knee the same day (I WILL be having a conversation about local anesthetics and feeling pain before she starts).

The only down side of all the knee information is she wants me to complete everything I need to do connected with my breast cancer before she will schedule surgery. The hard part is my knee fricking HURTS and is limiting my activity and the breast cancer is painless (at this point). Of course she did point out the fact the pain in my knee is annoying, but not life threatening – OKAY, so point well made and well taken. She wrote the order for surgery, but would like to have me referred to an oncologist so she can discuss my treatment plan and the possibility of surgery. So for the knee surgery I am in a holding pattern, but at least I am confident it will be fixed in the near future (walking around Disneyland pain free with my grandkids is be my goal).

Later . . .