In the month since I last saw my Orthopedic Specialist, not much progress has been made. The left knee continues to be grumpy, despite the Doc’s attempts to calm things down. 

The Knee brace he ordered became part of the problem and made the knee feel worse the more I wore it. Then the Naproxen bothered my stomach enough that I stopped it after a couple of weeks.

Where did that leave me?

With a left knee that continued to not let me run, became more painful as the day wore on, and limited what I can do in my daily life.  Which is frustrating and I have been dealing with this since May 9th. 

I prepared a two-and-a-half-page letter, explaining all my concerns, what was going on, and how I was feeling for my appointment with the Doc on Friday the 21^st. I find that if I don’t write things down ahead of a doctor’s appointment, I forget stuff, get tongue-tied, and don’t present my issues as I want. Then after I come out of the appointment thinking about all the stuff, I should’ve, could’ve, and would’ve said if I wasn’t attempting to process what he was saying, while trying to remember all the stuff I wanted to tell him.

Writing everything down ahead of time made it so that I only had to clarify what I wrote and could focus on what the doc was saying. It made things a lot easier for me and the doc.

After going through the letter and clarifying a few questions that he had, the appointment was going well. Then came the exam part. 

–  the MCL is coming along nicely according to him. 

– When he did the meniscus test, well let’s just say that I wasn’t a huge fan of the pain being induced. 

It F#@$ing hurt. 

A LOT!

He seemed perplexed because the MRI didn’t show significant damage to the meniscus, but my reaction to his test indicated there was more of a problem than he would have predicted – a lot more. We talked about how my continued levels of discomfort and pain haven’t changed much since May as well. This all seemed to change the direction of the appointment quite abruptly.

Based on those factors he started talking about arthroscopic surgery and all the things that could go wrong. Prior to the meniscus test, I was getting the impression from how he was talking that he was leaning in a different direction before he tested the knee. 

After that, we talked a bit more about what he would be doing during the surgery and then went out to schedule it. Before scheduling anything, I had to get an EKG. No biggie I was back down in less than 45:00 minutes and had passed without any issues — Phew! 

You never know what the old ticker is going show on those machines as you get old. Especially after I whacked my chest with a crowbar while removing tree stumps back in 2007, resulting in an overnight hospital stay, and had some weird shit going on for a while. Having a normal EKG was good news on a couple of fronts.

I have been tentatively scheduled for November 28th and just need to stay healthy and not get COVID-19 or other crappage floating around out there. So, I will revert to mask-wearing in public places, not be too stoopid about doing stuff on the knee and control my anxiety levels as I get closer to the surgery date.

This is a minor arthroscopic surgery and should be a 65-year routine maintenance check, then clean and scrape out what needs to be done. Then I get back to having my (what I consider normal) life again 2-3 months following the surgery.

Which is what I want. 

Now to get through the 28th and get on the road to recovery and getting my life back.

BTW – Terry G – Thank you for doctor recommendation, it was spot-on, and he is very good.