My Journey With Health And Fitness – Trying To Be Proactive

This afternoon I was back to facilitating the cargegivers’ support group for the 1st time in 7 weeks. It was great to get caught up with all of them and learn nothing traumatic had happened to their spouses while I was away. I do worry about them when I am gone but fortunately my co-facilitator keeps me in the loop with anything that is important.

Yesterday I did something a bit unusual, I went to see my doctor (in person). Normally I have 1 phone consultation each year (to get my lab requisition) and 1 in person consultation which is for my physical. However, I have been having issues with my knee in that over the past 6 months I’ve had a few arthritis flare ups and it is making me a bit concerned. And so I asked for a referral to an ortho to potentially start getting cortisone shots.

Now this doctor did not realize the number of surgeries that knee has gone through but then all of them were more than 30 years ago. She asked what type of surgery did I start with and I just matter of factly said MCL repair, ACL autograph with a lateral reinforcer. She said wow, you must have a good memory to which I responded by rattling off the 3 other surgeries. She decided to compare my 2 knees and noted my right one was really stiff. She was trying to get it to bend and I had to explain that on a good day I only get 110 degrees of flexion and extension only gets to 10 degrees. She checked various locations by pressing on my knee asking if there was any pain. I explained only when she pushed on the spots that have a lot of scar tissue. She agreed we may need to do something to help my knee.

She advised I would need to get an x-ray so that she could see what was going on with my knee. I laughed and said trust me, it is chock full of arthritis. I told her that it was nearly 20 years ago when they did a full leg x-rays to compare my knees and I knew as soon as I saw the images that it was not good. That specialist told me I needed a knee replacement but that the protocol was that unless it was debilitating knee replacements were not done before the age of 55 and I was only 41. But, I also told her that after 4 knee surgeries I know how brutal the rehab can be and I seriously am not mentally prepared to go through that again any time soon.

So, once she reviews the x-rays (I know what she is going to see) she will refer me to an ortho who really only sees patients to give them cortisone shots. I’m fine with that for now since I am trying to be proactive to keep this knee for as long as possible. If the cortisone shots doen’t work then I’ll get a referral to an ortho to discuss knee replacements but I am really hoping that isn’t needed for several years.