Knee Injuries Part 2: The Doctor and The Wait

When we last left off I was a few days away from visiting the new orthopedic surgeon and had really just gotten started in “The Process.”

Well, I’m down in the process now!

Last Saturday I had the chance to meet the new doc and honestly? I was super impressed. This guy? This guy’s a worker! He basically is in surgery every week day and meets with the patients on Saturday. He was bright, funny, well spoken and even recognized the Cormac McCarthy book that I had brought with me to kill the time.

/swoon

I don’t swing that way but if I did? Anyway. The funny thing is, when you go in any orthopedic surgeon’s office there is either a poster of the inner workings of the knee, like the banner image for this post, or there is a little scale rubber model with all of the ligaments and parts that can be stretched and used as a demo. Doc points at his poster and begins “See, the knee is composed of multiple parts. There’s the…”

I intervene “I know, I know, this is probably going to be an injured medial meniscus. I’ve done this four times before.”

“OK.” he says. “Thanks for saving me from the standard script.”

He starts a basic examination and it turns out that the swelling on the back of the knee is called a “Baker’s cyst.” That’s when you have an injury to the cartilage and the knee starts pumping out lubrication to protect itself and all it does is pool up on the back of the knee. He immediately recognizes this, as the knee is being bent he hears the audible crunch from the center of the knee and he actually flinched. “I’m going to have you get an MRI as soon as possible and I want to see you here in my office a week from today. I will give you a call as soon as I have the results. Sounds like you are correct in your assessment.” He says. “Let’s see if we can get this fixed up for you.” He says one of his people will call me with the MRI date and I was all set.

We got into a conversation about stem cell research. Turns out the new doc was going to New York this week for a conference and he plans on actually using stem cell therapy really soon to help with the healing of damaged joints in the body. Very cool stuff.

I’m feeling more relief than anything at this point. Yeah, it sucks to know that I’m probably looking at another surgery but the relief comes from knowing that we are heading into the next step of the process. Plus I’m feeling kind of self impressed with my own bad ass diagnostic skills. I fucking rule! I also have shitty fucking knees.

The weekend then progresses as normal, including doing the leg work for another Sunday Gravy post. No hints but I really love this particular dish I cooked, tune in on Sunday! I also forgot that there is about an hour to 75 minutes of dicing, chopping, browning prep work and I did the whole thing standing. I’ve been paying the price ever since. I think I’m going to sit on the balcony and grill on Sunday. Fuck that standing around shit.

I have to address the pain element again. In the first knee injury post I mentioned that the pain can be handled with R.I.C.E, remember the Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation acronym? This statement is still true but pain is an absolute motherfucker that just does not stop. It’s hard to articulate but pain actually builds. It may start as a constant annoyance that you just push to the back of your mind and deal with but over the course of several weeks it just keeps building. I’ve noticed that everyday the circles under my eyes are getting darker, the pain intensifies with each passing day and now it feels as if a little rope has been tied around the lower testicles and there’s a tiny Quasimodo motherfucker that keeps leaping up to grab the rope and is swinging from it while trying to ring the bells (or balls).

Asshole!

Monday came and went with no call from the doctor’s office so I contacted them on Tuesday. I was told that the “Coordinator” would be calling my insurance company that day and I would hear something before the end of the day.

Nope.

I called on Wednesday to find out what the fuck and I was told that they couldn’t get a response from my insurance company. You’re telling me you can’t get someone to pick up the phone at Anthem Blue Fucking Cross!?! And the bullshit flag was tossed.

They promised to call me that same day and they did a few hours later with the news that the imaging center where I was to get the MRI couldn’t see me for another fucking week. “But?” I asked. “What about my appointment this Saturday to see the doctor about the results of the MRI that hadn’t even been fucking scheduled yet?” They rescheduled that appointment for a week later.

I now have to deal with the building pain and the ongoing annoyance for an additional fucking week. Remember from the first part about the waiting. This is that. To be honest, if I hadn’t taken the initiative to find my own surgeon (in network!) and done the follow up myself this could have taken even more weeks to happen. The biggest problem is the fact that the insurance company and the folks at the MRI center are not walking around on this fucked up knee that sounds like crushing an aluminum can when you take a step.

Thanks for the sympathy you bastards.

There is a certain amount of relief knowing that dates are set for the next step in the process. The MRI is for April 28th and the prognosis appointment is for the 30th. I just need to keep pushing through. Did I mention that I haven’t missed a day of work during this whole endeavor? That’s because I have no idea how long I need to recover post-op. In the past when I had arthroscopic surgery for a torn meniscus I’ve only missed a day or two of work. Actually I’ve had surgeries on Friday and was back to work the following Monday. My most recent surgery with the micro-fracture shit was longer, about 10 working days. I’m just saving up my PTO because I would rather use it to have a kick ass trip somewhere than to sit at home with my goddamn leg propped up while watching the Food Network.

This is the worst part.

The wait.

The motherfucking wait.

To be continued.