Follow-up appointment with the orthopedist today. Had seven year\’s worth of reports, MRIs and X-Rays there with me. The team agreed that in 2001, when they performed arthroscopic surgery on me, they underestimated the shallow condition (it should be deeper) of the area behind my patella (kneecap). All they did was drain my knee of the fluid and loose bits of cartilage, then sent me to physical therapy for a few months. It was thought that would fix it, but it didn\’t.
Doc said my case is \”a head scratcher.\” All the current scans show nothing. Manual examination caused the knee to pop, which isn\’t a great sign, but the doc wasn\’t able to repeat the popping. Due to manual manipulation, case history, the absence of loose matter in the knee area showing on current tests, and how my knee behaves when it locks (my word), doc said that each time my knee has locked, it\’s actually dislocated itself. Which means every fucking time this has happened and I\’ve had to manually force my knee down and out to get my leg straight, I\’ve been resetting my kneecap. And I think I have a low pain tolerance(!).
Right now, it\’s physical therapy again for four weeks and wearing my knee brace all the time. (Not fun during the summer.) There\’s more to follow after that, but first I have to strengthen my knee. The \”more\” involves some other tests and then a possible surgery. From what these docs are saying, they\’re looking at my full (physical) case history from the past seven years, and they think that the knee pain and the ass pain don\’t just happen to be on the same leg — they think it\’s all the same problem. One of two things behind the cause: an anatomic abnormality (either in the bone length or structure or the muscles), or a long-term injury that has never healed.
[A sports injury from my days as a tomboy (10 years of gymnastics, 3 of competitive swimming, also softball, football, biking, wrestling, and whatever else) would date the injury back sixteen years or more. The first instance of locking I recall for sure was in 2001, though my knee was definitely giving away before then. I suppose if I had an untreated injury for 10 years it could build to the point where it would start locking/dislocating. Doing that often enough could cause the ass pain to kick in. But unfortunately, I got used to my knee locking after awhile, and so failed to record all instances of it. Therefore, I don\’t remember and have no record of my knee locking in the weeks leading up to the sudden onset of the ass pain. My docs, though, say that if I had been athletic during the time frame of the injury they would have definitely said I have a rotten case of chondromalacia (runner\’s knee). But, uh… I haven\’t run since gym class in 1995, and since that year was completely the last time I was physically active outside of swimming and sex, I find it hysterical that I have a sports injury that has induced without any sport or injury. That\’s how athletically-challenged I have been in the past few years: I can get sports injuries just by thinking about the sports — I don\’t even have to play them. That\’s a new gold star in utter gimptasticness that cannot be beat!]
