« One medical opinion down... | Main | Big biking day »
June 19, 2007
The orthopedist's two cents
I must have pressed the snooze bar on my alarm a million times this morning--I could not get up! I finally did and ended up riding my trainer while watching (most of) Adrian Grenier's documentary about looking for his birth father (it premiered on HBO a few weeks ago). It was pretty good although not the kind of movie that gets you pumped up for a workout!
First on my agenda today was my appointment with an orthopedist at Georgetown. I made this appointment about a month ago but I probably should have first gone last summer to get an opinion on the MRI. The doctor was someone I had heard was good with knees and a sports medicine specialist. Although I had one of the first appointments of the day, the wait was terrible; nearly an hour. First the resident saw me and did many of the same "tests' that the chiropractor did yesterday. He pressed on the spot where I would have pain if the pes was inflamed and I didn't really feel anything. Then the doctor came in--after having looked at my MRI from last August--and pointed out my "huge effusion" which I guess is swelling. He understood that I wanted to get back to running, though, and said a cortisone shot or draining it would make it feel better. Before he decided what to do, he had me go get X-rays of both knees, which meant another hour or so of waiting for the X-ray and then waiting to see the doctor again. The upshot of it was that the doctor said both knees looked pretty bad in terms of wear and tear and that a shot would calm things down in the knee that is bothering me. I was scared about the shot but it didn't hurt too much and the doc seems convinced that I will be able to run in a couple of days. We'll see, though, because I am not certain that the swelling (on the outside of the knee) is related to the inner knee pain.
I am also going to look into getting custom orthotics to possibly address my terrible biomechanics that seem to be causing all of my problems. I am supposed to bike tomorrow, elliptical the next day, and try running on Friday.
Because my knee was still feeling weird from the shot, I did not do anything in the gym after work except lift (upper body). The stiffness is starting to get better but the inside of my knee still hurts so we will see how it is doing tomorrow!
Posted by becky at June 19, 2007 8:48 PM
Comments
Hey Becky, I hope your knees are feeling better. Rest is best in these situations! It sounds like your doc at least takes your concerns seriously, and although you had to wait it sounds like he gave you a good exam and got xrays. I've been wearing custom made Langer Sporthotics since I was in 10th grade and am a big fan. http://www.langerbiomechanics.com/sports/index.html
Posted by: Liz at June 20, 2007 9:35 AM