Pre-Christmas Knee Update

I haven't written much lately, I know. Have thought of topics, just haven't had the time or inclination. Winter is so dark and depressing...

Had that MRI in Dortmund last week. With a knee brace and lots of pain killers I was able to drag myself the short distances through Hbf's (train stations) and the rest we did via taxis. For some reason my doc put down that I'm claustrophobic (huh?), which explained why they kept telling me "keine Angst" (don't be scared) and "you did SO well!", lol. Made me think you should always tell them you're terrified and then they'll be super nice to you.

An interesting thing about Germany is that I found out within an hour of the MRI what the general problem was. They made us a CD with the images to give to a doc and a radiologist went over them with us right there at the hospital. No waiting for days for the report to go to your doc, then waiting for your doc to call you. That was at least pretty cool.

So yes, I have a stupid meniscus tear (and most likely some other stuff, like tendon injuries that have now healed... hell, it was 9 weeks from injury to MRI ... the horrid pain on one side of my knee down to my ankle has gone away lately) and some degeneration of the joint cartilage. If I was a skinny person, it probably wouldn't hurt AS bad as it does, but each extra pound puts extra pressure on the knee and onto that tear that's sticking up into the way of the normal joint motion. So the whole knee is always inflamed in there and I can't twist or completely straighten my leg. I can stand for about, oh, 10 minutes or so tops before I simply MUST get off my feet. I learned the hard way what happens when I don't get off my feet a couple of week ago... something pinched onto a nerve or something and the pain was so excruciating! I was crying like crazy and I couldn't move a muscle at ALL in my leg for about 2 hours until we moved it by force (with screaming like all hell!) and I felt a pop inside and... back to 'normal'. I guess the tear had pushed something out of place? Something weird like that.

Anyway, I do have to have surgery. Probably just to remove the torn piece, not sure yet if there's any chance of a repair. A repair means a much longer recovery, but a removal means probable early osteoarthritis, which I already am on the path to anyway. Not cool. We still have to find a surgeon and all that. The horror stories of knee surgeries gone bad that my husbunny's coworkers have been telling him lately have NOT instilled confidence in me of the area's knee surgeons!!! It's tough getting appointments right now at Christmas, so this will probably happen in January, hopefully with one of the surgeons that doesn't sew tubing into the joint or shave off way too much of the meniscus! General anesthesia is much riskier for me than for the average person, so this is pretty scary. Hopefully they WILL clear me for surgery in the first place. I'm a little worried they'll say something like "you're not a good candidate to safely do any type of surgery on right now, so just get sit on your ass for months more and get fatter." Ugh.

Well, we'll see...