News of the Knee

Hello faithful Land of Osbourne Readers

You may recall, back in May of 2012 I had ACL & Miniscus surgery on my right knee.

I made it successfully through surgery, recovery and later, physical therapy. I have some not so fond memories of the huge cumbersome knee brace I was forced to wear.

After surgery I met with the guy who did the work, to see how my knee felt, bla bla bla.

He shook his head in a sort of resigned way and advised me my knees are very very loose. My flexibility is going to be an ongoing problem. (doesn't that just give you warm fuzzy feelings?)

He also indicated that its very hard for him to test my knees because they're so loose. Even right after the surgery, my right knee was loose.

When I first met the guy, he said that if they do a cadaver ACL replacement, the healing is faster and the pain is significantly less. (Well hell, that sounds good to me!). The only down fall was that the likely hood of having to do all this again is higher. (I must not have been thinking clearly at this point, I was probably still hearing the heal faster, less pain part).

Which brings me to the reason for my "news of the knee".

I am 70% certain there is a problem in there again. On 3 seperate occasions, my right knee has done that same thing that happened before surgery, I can feel my kneecap slide to the left, and then it starts to not want to hold me up anymore. Thankfully, the 3 times it happened, I wasn't doing anything stupid like....jumping jacks. ;)

I am due to go back to the doc who did the surgery to be fitted for a permanent brace (which I haven't done yet for a myriad of reasons). I realize if I go back there now to be fitted for the brace, I am going to have to be honest when he asks me how I am doing. Then we start the whole mess over again. MRI, follow up appointment telling me (pardon the language here): "Yep, you're fucked. When do you want to come back for the next surgery?"

My friend Kim has has 4 ACL surgeries (which makes me feel a bit like a whiner here), and I am impressed with the last doctor she went to. (for reasons I won't outline here, this post is getting long already).  From what Kim has said, this Doc (which is a chick I might add), is sort of the 'end of the line' ACL doc. People go to her when nothing else has worked.

I don't want to get to my 4th ACL surgery before I decide to see her, so I am fairly certain I am going to make an appointment.

I am FURIOUS about this. I haven't even made it a year on this knee. I DO NOT want to go through all this crap again. I do NOT want to blow away another spring, summer and fall screwing around with recuperation, physical therapy bla bla bla.

John and I went out and got another new knee brace to wear. Yippy.

I talked to Mom and Dad about it. Mom said in a very matter of fact tone: "Well, you're just going to have to get it fixed again. You can't be walking around on a bad knee. You could fall down a flight of steps and break your neck".  Wow. Good point Mom.

I told Mom that I don't think I want to go back to the doctor who did it last time, and I told her about Kim's doc. I've begun referring to the 1st doc I went to as Jed Clampett, and Kim's doc as Dr. House.  :)

My eyes are still not making moisture, which feels just great in the dry winter.

Crohn's is still causing problems, (of course!), I have the test on Friday to check those precancerous cells and also the esophagus, stomach, duodenum check also.

At the rate I am going, any other health problems come up, I'll have to be taken out back and shot.

(insert string of obscenities here)