So the MRI shows a torn meniscus. This is good news! Instead of a diagnosis of arthritis and prognoses that does not include any running it should be a quick scope and of to the races.
At this point I wanted to return to my original orthopedic surgeon, the one that called me a wimp. So after a little red tape and a few phone calls I was set to see him. I was confident that I would be scheduled to for a quick orthoscopic surgery and It would be back to the races.
Well that was a short period of optimism. He was right back to the arthritis thing again. This time the suggest therapy was a knee replacement. That would really put the final nail in my running coffin. I was still filled with all the skeptical feelings from my previous encounters with the previous doctors.
I continue to be skeptical with regards to the arthritis diagnosis. Especially due to the inconsistencies in diagnosis. When the doctor moved my knee (articulated the knee joint?) he said the grinding noise was the arthritis setting in. Well I said it has been setting in for a long time because my knee has done that exact noise for 30 years. He also gingerly pushed on my knee cap and at the same time told me that a knee replacement would alleviate the pain of the knee cap sliding on the tibia (or femur). When he did this I think he expected me to wince. Because he moved it again, this time a little harder. Still no reaction from me (it simply did not hurt). After a couple more less than gentle pushes on the knee cap he stopped.
The long and the short of it was that the doctor agreed to do a scope to repair the meniscus. He did so with the warning that I may be back in 3 to 6 months for that knee replacement. When this course of action was decided he offered to do the surgery on Thursday. I thought good that is soon, I can have the surgery and be quickly on my way to recovery. Before I agreed ii quickly did the calendar arithmetic. Today was Wednesday tomorrow is Thursday that would mean that the surgery would be the next day. Whoa, just a minute. 1 day (actually it would have been about 16 hours ) notice.
There is no way I could get all the logistical pieces together for a next day surgery. I would have to have to make sure work is covered. Since a general anesthetic would be used I would have to get my wife to pick me up, so she would have to make arrangements to get her work stuff covered. Usually there is pre op type work needing to be done, prescriptions to pick up etc.
I was a little apprehensive asking for the next available day. I am aware that the doctor is very busy and if I turn down the day offered it could be another couple of weeks before another slot is available. Fortunately there was a slot on the following Monday. In fact he had several slots open. The reason for all the open slots; most everyone's health insurance had changed at the new year. The biggest change was a huge increase in deductibles. So everyone was cancelling elective surgeries due to the higher out of pocket cost.
So now I had time to get everything in order for the surgery. My next biggest surprise was the prescriptions. They gave me 2 prescriptions, one for pain and one for the nausea that the pain pills cause. As always the prescriptions were difficult to read. So when I took them to my pharmacist I ask how many pain pills I was to receive. After picking myself up off the floor I decided not to get the script. It was for 30 pills!! I do not want 30 of those things around my house. From past experiences I knew I was unlikely to take many of them and so I would be left with deciding how to get rid of them. The pharmacist said that they would keep them on file and if I needed them I could call and pick them up.
Next post: Surgery Day
Knee replacement running study
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