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November 20, 2007
Built badly
It seemed very dark out this morning, even though I wasn't up much earlier than usual. I guess it was the clouds. But it wasn't cold--it is warming up for Thanksgiving as has been the trend in recent years and it is supposed to be around 70 tomorrow here. I was thinking about my knee a lot (too much?) when I ran because I knew I would be going for that second opinion later in the morning. It basically bothers me on and off throughout runs depending on whether I am going uphill (better) or downhill (worse). It's very weird because while walking, it's going up the stairs that bothers me. I felt pretty good on the flats and uphills today, but I had one longish downhill that hurt.
I was actually on time today getting back from my run and was even ten minutes early to the doctor, which is almost unheard of for me. However, after filling out my paperwork, I did not see the doctor for a full hour! And there were tons of people in the waiting room, so I wasn't the only one. Isn't that terrible? I can understand 10 or 15 minutes but that is so disrespectful of people's time! Luckily I had my BlackBerry and I could tell things were quiet at work.
Anyway, when the doctor finally came in, I showed him my MRI report and told him that he was a second opinion (he could obviously tell since the report had my other doctor's name on it). He took a couple of new x-rays (of BOTH knees this time, at my urging) and basically told me that both my knees look awful in terms of kneecap tracking--the "good" one actually looks worse--and I am headed for knee replacements. I know he does see runners (I got his name from the club medical directory) so I was a little taken aback when he seemed surprised that I was still running and wanted to continue. He said I should probably do the lateral release surgery sometime down the line on both legs to re-align the kneecaps and correct my tracking. (This is the drastic IT band release surgery that I am scared of for several reasons, mostly because my PT told me he's seen a lot of people worse off afterwards.)
So my second opinion basically concurred with my first, but Dr. K at Georgetown also has another option, these Synvisc injections. As long as I can run some right now, I am going to try the injections (they are natural and increase the viscosity of the synovial fluid, lubricating the joints). I just have to clear it with my insurance company.
And the saga continues.
So after all that, I was kind of down, but not willing to give up. If it comes to surgery, I love running that much that I will do it, but I am trying to be as conservative as possible for now.
The rest of the day was pretty quiet and because of that I was quite productive. The gym was gloriously empty of undergrads so I sailed through my routine with few roadblocks. Tonight I need to pack for our trip to New York (mostly) and Boston (a wedding on Sunday night). I am a terrible packer to begin with and with the fluctuating temperatures and lots of different events to plan for, I am extremely stressed!
Posted by becky at November 20, 2007 9:17 PM