Knee

After spending 5.5  hours in the ophthalmologists office on Friday, and then lab for blood work, and another appt. for eye on Friday again.....as I was saying in Kimberly's blog, getting better.....I had an appt. for my knee today with an orthopedic surgeon.

The x-rays the doctor took when I got back from Utah were with me laying down, this doctor said you cannot see the damage that way, you had to take them standing up. So stand up I did. Amazing the difference. So I have damaged my knee...surprised?? What did the damage was all the times that my knee cap popped over to the right side and I "popped" it back in. Every time I did that I was wearing the cartilage down. I had to get it back in, however, I should have gone to the doctor and have them secure it so that it did not pop out at all. My left side still has a good amount of meniscus but on the right side it is completely gone and I am bone on bone, Hence the limping the last several months.

After some discussion about what to do, we decided on a cortisone shot for today and he wrote me a prescription for physical aquatherapy. He said what I was doing in the pool could very possibly be hurting my knee, especially since it has not helped. They will show me how to do very specific things for my exact knee problems and then I am not to do anything else.

He said I will need a knee replacement in 3-5 years, or if I get a patella ....something something, basically realigning my knee cap that would make it to where I could have possibly 5-7 years before replacement. Of course all of this could be different, could be 1 could be 10. One never knows..

Here is the part, other than how I should have gone to the doctor, that concerns my girls.

My knee cap was never aligned properly, it sits to the right. Which is why it should have been caught earlier. Another problem is that I am slightly knock kneed? in that leg and that should have been corrected as a child, but no one told my parents that mom remembers. Both Angie and Michele wore corrective shoes to straighten out issues apparently but mom says they never suggested anything for me. The surgeon today said that it was so slight that they probably did not think it needed addressed but could and should have been. If anyone has knee pain from anything or  at any time please check it now. Alignment apparently runs in families.

Just another thing to put on the family medical tree????  Love you all and do not want you to go thru stuff like this if it can be helped.