This post is basically going to be a long string of word vomit. No editing, so refining it to be the perfect blog post. Just a few paragraphs with some words I need to get off my chest.
You see, today marks one year since my last knee surgery (my 8th if you’re adding up the surgeries from both my left and right knee). You know, the one that was supposed to solve all of my problems and leave me pain free for the first time since 2012.
If you’ve followed the blog or my instagram for the last year, you’ll know by now that things didn’t exactly go according to plan. In fact, I’d probably say that I’m in more constant pain a year post-op than I was prior to the operation.
Since I first injured my right knee in July 2012, I’ve had 5 surgeries, each one filled with the promise of fixing the problem (torn ligaments, metal shavings in my knee, loosening and tightening a ligament). This last one took place a year ago. My surgeon removed a suture (that was intentionally left there to keep a ligament together) that had somehow ended up rubbing against a nerve.
Now, logic would say that if you remove something that is irritating or rubbing up against a nerve, that the pain would go away, right?
Wrong.
The pain hasn’t gone away, my knee hasn’t stopped being swollen since the surgery, and in spite of various interventions both before and after the surgery, standing and walking are still two of my least favourite activities.
This knee has really gone through the ringer. I’ve literally done everything possible to try and get it better.
Physical therapy? Check.
Injections (cortisone, prolotherapy, PRP, amniofix)? Check.
Pool therapy? Check.
Rest/ice/doing nothing? Check.
Surgery? Check x 5.
Virtual reality therapy? Check.
Mirror box therapy? Check.
Acupuncture? Check.
Cupping? Check.
Obnoxious knee braces? Check.
I mean, I really can’t think of anything else to try that I haven’t done already. I’m stumped. My physical therapists/acupuncturist/physiatrist are stumped. My surgeon and a few other orthopedists are stumped. I had an appointment with another orthopedist for a second opinion back in April and he called me his “mystery patient”.
That is not what you want to hear when you’re in pain. You don’t actually ever want to be the mystery patient. Solvable medical issues only, please.
I’m not so patiently waiting a call back from my orthopedist to see if there is anything else we can do. I’ve been wearing a very uncomfortable unloading brace for the last month. My physical therapist suggested it as a way to take the pressure off the inside of my knee to see if that would help with my pain.
It hasn’t.
I had to go back and see my surgeon because he’s the only person that could order this brace. When I told him my physical therapist had suggested it, we both took a look at my most recent MRI from April. I’m not bone on bone and I don’t have osteoarthritis, two things that people who wear unloading braces usually deal with. But nothing else has worked, so we figured I had “nothing to lose”.
This brace has been the worst. It’s uncomfortable, a pain in the butt to deal with, and it hasn’t even sort of helped with my pain. He told me to wear if for a month and let him know how it’s doing. I left him a message on Monday, Tuesdays are his operating days, so I’m hoping to get a call back today or tomorrow.
I don’t know what he’ll say, but I’m hoping it’ll be something like, “I’ve spent the last four weeks thinking and thinking about your knee, speaking to every physician I know and researching as much as I can. I’ve figured it out!”.
That probably won’t happen, but it’s good to have hope, right?
