R E L I E F

So, I saw the doctor today.  Not my regular doctor who is sick but another in his practice.  I was telling my Mom last night (appointment was yesterday but rescheduled because doctor was out) that I was kind of glad that I was seeing another doctor.  This is no knock on my current one, but it was something of a second opinion.  I’ve seen him for five years now and most of it has been colds, sinus infections, etc.  And I’ve been perfecty pleased, but I just didn’t feel like the knee thing was going so well with him.  I just couldn’t accept that I would go from walking fine one day to hobbled the next.

So, I see another doctor, and she spent a great deal of time checking out the leg, comparing it to the other one, identifying the pain, etc.  And things had changed since I saw my doctor the first time.  At that point, I could only hobble up and down stairs.  And my knee principally hurt in motion.  Now, it just hurt, regardless, it hurt.  Not paint peeling pain, but no fun I assure. And ocassionally the pain would radiate out through my leg.  And with no drugs my tummy could tolerate, not a happy situation.

Per the latest doctor, I do have beginnings of arthritis, but actually on the OPPOSITE side of my leg from where the pain is located.  She noted that I had injured my knee in the past (when I was about 12 or 13), she thinks that has created a weakness in my leg, and believes that I somehow twisted my ankle – got to love our bodies.  When I twisted the ankle wrong, it put pressure on the tendons and bursa on the side of my knee.  Tendon and bursa is now inflammed.

I hadn’t really been taking it all that easy because my understanding from Doctor One was that I had arthritis and that was just that.  In fact, I’m just continuing to irritate things.

The not fun part of the morning was that she gave me injections in my knee to quell the inflamation, etc.  She said I would have to take drugs to counteract the medicine I had been on and my stomach had reacted so fast she wasn’t even sure that would work well.  So the best thing was the injections, some cocktail of meds.  I watched them be mixed sucked into that monster needle and tried to ignore it.

I got the long anatomy lesson (I don’t remember all the bones and muscles and tendons from biology, I apologize, and I still don’t tonight).  I had gotten the explanation of staying off my legs for a week, etc.  I didn’t really need to know the cocktail in my leg.  The half dozen needle jabs were quite enough information.

I told the doctor before I started that I’m a big baby about needles.  I just hate them.  I can totally do it, but I just hate it.  So, just let me lie there and stare at the ceiling and dear lord god don’t try to make small talk.  Of course, the nurse does what as she watches the winces cross my face, she starts trying to make small talk.  “Just think, we’re going to have a beautiful weekend!”  –wince–  yeh, I have to sit through it –wince– “oh right, well, basketball on TV, you like sports don’t you.”  –wince–not really, I’ve got a stack of DVD’s tho, I’ll be fine –wince–  etc.

Still, I’m tired, but in a great mood tonight.  Work tried to beat it out of me, but after spending two weeks thinking that this was the state of my life from here on out, arthritic knee and all, this was a weight lifting off my mood.  The doctor today assured me that though I have issues with my knee from the childhood injury, I don’t have more than typical beginnings of arthritis that someone my age has…  oh thank you… bless you, let me worship you..