Knee Matters

Three appointments later and I still don't really know what is up with my knee. Has been swollen and "loose" feeling for a couple weeks now. After week one I decided to see a doctor as it is the knee I have had surgery on twice before.

First appointment was with a primary care physician. She was surprised by the fluid and looseness of the knee. Asked me to have an MRI

Had MRI

Called three days later (said it would only take one and I still hadn't heard back. Got in touch with a nurse who spoke to the doctor. Said the ACL wasn't torn, which I really didn't think it was, but was glad to hear. Was very wishy washy about the rest - didn't know why it was swollen, end of the line for them. Said I could check with my orthopedic surgeon. I felt VERY frustrated. Not only did I not have any answers, ,but I was required to make ANOTHER appointment. Huge pain when you have kids.

Third appointment was with Dr. Meeks who performed the last two surgeries about 6 years ago. I wasn't really confident in that visit. Even with the chart in front of him I had to let him know he did the surgeries. Then it kind of seemed like he was covering his skills while going over the report the MGH doctors wrote pertaining to the MRI. Dr. Meeks jabbed (literally) a needle around in my knee to take out fluid and put in cortisone with not much anesthesia. He then went over the MGH report quickly and really ended with no cause or reason for this to have happened or what was really wrong. Most I could get was that a callus had formed over the bone where the new ligament was attached - SIX YEARS ago (so why is it suddenly sore now and supposed to be all better with a little needle jabbing?) The report from the MGH people said stuff like :"linear signal abnormality involving the posterior horn...which may reflect a peripheral tear." "ACL ligament appears thickened with mild abnormal signal" ( I think this is when DR. M said that he put a bigger ligament in on purpose..." "there is laxity throughout the graft..." "there is a tiny Baker's cyst" "peripheral tears of the medial and lateral menisci with possible prior repair"

A lot of big technical words and abnormalities in my opinion for things to be A OK.

sigh... To be honest, it DOES feel better today after that poking. Hope it all goes away as mysteriously as it came.