Well, then...

[amberfocus]

The knee doctor isn't keen on doing surgery at all. He says with what I have, surgery is about 50/50 on whether or not it will improve the situation or make it worse. Well, that just...sucks. But after testing my range of motion, he is quite hopeful that a different type of physical therapy than the one I had before, can improve the situation. Also, my other doctor read the MRI thing wrong. Although there is a problem with the patellar tendon, it's not a tear, though it sort of looks like one so he could see where my doc made that mistake. He did say my quad muscles were a mess and probably contributing to a lot of the day to day pain and this therapy will help with that.

He also wants me to stop walking with the cane as much as I possibly can, because he thinks it's actually making things worse in the rest of my body and contributing to more recent pain in the other knee because of compensating. Which I can feel so yeah, it makes sense. It'll be hard to make that transition, though. He also recommends getting back in the pool and doing my laps again (no frog kicking, but straight up and down is fine) and to continue losing weight.

So anyway, I will go through six weeks of therapy and then we'll go from there. Hopefully it will make a difference because I am so tired of pain. Now I just have to deal with the follow up to my surgery in July and maybe I'll be done with medical for a while. I drive down to Virginia Mason on Friday for that. Maybe 2012 will be a healthy, strong year. That would be wonderful. Really, I could cope with that.

Comments

[bloose09.livejournal.com]

It is always good news if you can be healed without surgery. Hopefully it will be as your doctor says and the new therapy will strengthen your leg muscles. Then your pain will be a thing of the past.

I hope the follow up appointment goes well on Friday.

[fishface44.livejournal.com]

I am so hopeful for you that the new type of therapy will help your knee heal. The no tear thing is definitely good news! You very much deserve a healthy, happy 2012!!

[who-in-whoville.livejournal.com]

Oh wouldn't it be wonderful if therapy instead of surgery gave you relief?! I hope you are at peace with this course of treatment.

[valiant-queene.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that you might not need surgery. I hope that this new therapy will work better with your knee. Good luck moving off of the cane!

[crimedoc1.livejournal.com]

Great news that you don't need surgery - it's always better to not have anything invasive! Therapy is SO much better. I hope you've got good physical therapists; the good ones are blessings from heaven and should be cherished and loved!

Transitioning off the cane may be a bit tricky at first if you're really used to relying on it but it should only take a day or two to get comfortable I think.

*hugs*

[larxene-12.livejournal.com]

Yay! Glad you don't have to go through surgery; especially if it's a hit and miss like that one.

Good luck with your recovery! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you :D

[tracy-lousia.livejournal.com]

Glad you don't have to do the surgery, it's always better to avoid it if possible. Hope the therapy works and that 2012 is a good year.

[susanb03.livejournal.com]

that's really great about the surgery. Hopefully the pt will really help!

[develish1]

I'll be crossing everything for you that this therapy helps love. you've been struggling with this for far too long already *hugs*