I don't know if I've mentioned this before or not. Several months ago I squatted down to get something out from a cabinet under the kitchen counter and when I went to raise back up something got majorly fucked up in my left knee. I thought that the bone had popped out of socket. That's what it felt like. I had an incredibly acute pain and I just fell over. I was by myself and not within reach of a phone (should have had my Med-Alert bracelet!!) so I forced myself to straighten my leg. It felt like the bone popped back into the joint and after a split-second of killer pain it was ok again, although it then swelled a bit and was sore for a few days.
I just chalked it up to being a freak accident and, even though I was concerned, went on with life. Then a few weeks later it happened again. Then it kept occurring with more frequency until over the past couple of weeks if I move my leg the wrong way while sitting in a chair I'll get a shooting pain.
Now it feels more like a torn muscle or tendon than a problem with the socket. It's just totally weird. I've been conditioned now so that I know which positions seem to trigger the pain and avoid moving my leg or knee that way. Sometimes it's just not predictable though and the pain will hit me and my leg will be essentially locked up, meaning that I can't move it out of the position it's in without enduring great pain. One night while getting into bed the knee went out and I accidentally discovered that if I kept my leg 'crooked' like I had it crossed over the other leg and then straightened it out with my calf turned horizontally instead of vertically it didn't hurt.
Last week was my birthday and since it's so close to the July 4th holiday (b-day on 7/2) I usually take an extended weekend, which is what I did. (Probably noted all this before but since I have no short-term memory I'll repeat.) I completely vegged out on my actual birthday but then the next day I got up and went and ran a dozen errands that I'd been putting off forever, including a visit to an orthopedic surgeon regarding my knee. He suggested that I probably had some sort of a tear that could be remedied with physical therapy but sent me for an MRI in order to more accurately diagnose the problem. My follow-up was Tuesday and I went in that morning thinking that he'd approve me for weekly or bi-weekly physical therapy over a month or two, which I'd do on my lunch break or right after work somewhere in Lewisville. However, I could tell when he came in that the problem was more serious than he'd initially thought just from his demeanor.
Sure enough, I have damage to the cartilage in my knee, called the meniscus, and will have to have a surgical procedure tomorrow morning. (Delightful.) The doctor said that if I had come to him right after the incident occurred that he would have just given me guidelines for taking it easy and instructed me to let it heal for three or four weeks. However, since I've been battling the problem for several months now he knows that it's chronic and going to require surgery to correct.
He can tell the cartilage is damaged from the MRI but it doesn't reflect the detail that he needs in order to know which route he's going to have to take to repair it. There are two possible 'fixes' that depend upon the type of damage and both possibilities have their own pros and cons.
If the tear is clean he can just stitch the cartilage back together. The good thing about this is that once healed it's almost for certain that there will be no long-term problems and it'll be as if the accident never occurred. The bad news about this scenario is that it has a very long recovery period. He said I'd be on crutches for four to six weeks and total recovery would take three or four months!
If it turns out that it's not a clean tear and/or some of the cartilage has been pulverized then the doctor will simply excise the damaged part. The good news about this scenario is that I'd only be on crutches for three or four days and total recovery time is like four to six weeks. However, the bad news is that when they're not able to save the cartilage your chances of developing arthritis in that knee go up tremendously and he said that it was virtually a given that at some point after I turn 50 I'll have to have the knee (knee cap?) replaced.
So it's like the surgical equivalent of cash versus credit - I'll either pay up front or put off payment till later with interest. But I have no say in the matter. It'll just work out the way it works out.
The procedure is no big deal. It's laparoscopic and only requires two small incisions. The procedure takes about 45-minutes on average, so I'll be in-and-out really quickly. Unlike more extensive surgery where they require you to be at the hospital at like five in the morning I don't have to be there until 8am. Also, I'm going to one of those small out-patient surgical centers as opposed to an actual hospital. They told me I should be ready to leave between 11am and 12pm. (Still, I'm always a little freaked out whenever going under full-on anesthesia because sometimes people don't wake up from that shit!!)
Since I have to have this procedure done there is other good news considering. My insurance at my new job is really, really good. I only have a $150 annual deductible, which I met when I had the MRI done last week. After meeting the deductible the insurance pays 100%!!! So the surgery will be covered in-full and won't cost me a dime!!!
Also, a neighbor of ours volunteered to keep Emily all weekend and that's going to be a tremendous help. I love it because the neighbor is right behind us, so it's almost like Emily is just in the other room and we can check on her but better because she's totally out of my hair.
Finally, we got connected with that new Fios technology this week (fiber-optic television, internet and phone) and I haven't had the time to really mess around with it, so I'll be able to sit on my butt all weekend and figure it out, program my favorite channels and catch up on a lot of bad shows. I can tell that the tv part, at least, is fuckin' bad ass, so I'll have fun fooling around with it.
Alright. I'd better go. As usual I'm at work and doing a whole lot of nothing, which I'm afraid I'm gonna get totally busted for one of these days.
