Because no one is sick of me talking about this yet...
Previously on "Jackie's Knee Injury," she had a steroid injection and continued physical therapy!
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Update! I saw the doc again at the end of September, and my old pain had returned. Physical therapy has helped a little, but not as much as it should have for my having done it for two months, so he's stopping the "formal" therapy for now (until we can figure out what is actually wrong). We discussed surgery (at least, the "stick a camera in my knee and see what we can see" part), but in the end decided (it was mostly my decision) to get a contrast MRI. This should definitely show any tears or rivets in my cartilage (another possibility the doctor mentioned). I really hope its not that, because that's not very fixable--they can smooth it out, and he said that about 70% of patients feel their knee gets 70% better after.
Meanwhile, since I was getting another MRI, it had to be approved by the worker's comp again, so I had to deal with them and their third party people to schedule everything (this took a little over a week).
I had the MRI yesterday, and man...what an experience. When they finally called me back (things were behind schedule), I went into an x-ray room first. The nurse explained the procedure: first, they'd numb up my knee, and then inject the MRI contrast. To make sure the fluid was covering things correctly, at they same time they would inject a contrast that would show up on the x-ray. The x-ray was pretty cool, because it was live action! There was a TV screen of sorts, and when they lined it up over my knee, I could see my knee bone!
After situating me under the x-ray, the doctor came in and prepped my knee with iodine. The nurse had warned me that the numbing agent (which is the same stuff they use at the dentist) would sting, but HOLY CRAP, you guys. It stung so badly that I actually had tears! Luckily, it went numb right away, so the next needle in my leg, which looked kind of like an IV with a little tube that went into a large syringe, didn't hurt at all. This syringe contained the mixture of contrast stuff, which the doctor then slowly pumped into my knee (it felt very weird). This was also live action on the x-ray screen, so I could see the cloud of liquid move around my bones and watch it shift when the doctor had me bend my knee to move it around.
When they were done, the doctor instructed me to walk as normally as I could (they told me my knee might feel unstable because of all the fluid), and to bend it/exercise it as much as I could before the MRI. So off I went down the hall (knee feeling fine) to the MRI. This was exactly the same as the last time--lots of jackhammer noises, freezing cold room.
Afterwards, I changed and then was free to leave! They told me to take it easy ("no jogging or running"--like I do that shit anyway), but I had a couple of quick errands to do, so I did those before going home. The whole time my knee continued to feel weird, but didn't hurt.
However, by the time I got home (an hour or so later), I noticed things were changing--the injection site was starting to feel tender, and when I climbed the stairs up to my apartment, I had trouble putting my weight all the way on my bad leg. Ruh roh. So I iced it, put it up--it got worse. By the time I was making dinner, I couldn't even stand on it at all, and could barely shuffle around my apartment (lots of hopping was involved). It was swollen (likely cause it was full of fluid), so I kept it up, and took Aleve. It didn't hurt (more than usual) when I was sitting down, but as soon as I tried to move, it killed.
Happily, its much better this morning--less swollen, though the injection site is still bumpy and looks slightly bruised. Walking DOWN the stairs (and down the curb at the office) totally sucked, though. Good thing I don't have to worry about stairs again for another eight hours or so.
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Next week on "Jackie's Knee Injury": She sees the doctor Monday and hopefully someone knows what's wrong with her!!
-----
Update! I saw the doc again at the end of September, and my old pain had returned. Physical therapy has helped a little, but not as much as it should have for my having done it for two months, so he's stopping the "formal" therapy for now (until we can figure out what is actually wrong). We discussed surgery (at least, the "stick a camera in my knee and see what we can see" part), but in the end decided (it was mostly my decision) to get a contrast MRI. This should definitely show any tears or rivets in my cartilage (another possibility the doctor mentioned). I really hope its not that, because that's not very fixable--they can smooth it out, and he said that about 70% of patients feel their knee gets 70% better after.
Meanwhile, since I was getting another MRI, it had to be approved by the worker's comp again, so I had to deal with them and their third party people to schedule everything (this took a little over a week).
I had the MRI yesterday, and man...what an experience. When they finally called me back (things were behind schedule), I went into an x-ray room first. The nurse explained the procedure: first, they'd numb up my knee, and then inject the MRI contrast. To make sure the fluid was covering things correctly, at they same time they would inject a contrast that would show up on the x-ray. The x-ray was pretty cool, because it was live action! There was a TV screen of sorts, and when they lined it up over my knee, I could see my knee bone!
After situating me under the x-ray, the doctor came in and prepped my knee with iodine. The nurse had warned me that the numbing agent (which is the same stuff they use at the dentist) would sting, but HOLY CRAP, you guys. It stung so badly that I actually had tears! Luckily, it went numb right away, so the next needle in my leg, which looked kind of like an IV with a little tube that went into a large syringe, didn't hurt at all. This syringe contained the mixture of contrast stuff, which the doctor then slowly pumped into my knee (it felt very weird). This was also live action on the x-ray screen, so I could see the cloud of liquid move around my bones and watch it shift when the doctor had me bend my knee to move it around.
When they were done, the doctor instructed me to walk as normally as I could (they told me my knee might feel unstable because of all the fluid), and to bend it/exercise it as much as I could before the MRI. So off I went down the hall (knee feeling fine) to the MRI. This was exactly the same as the last time--lots of jackhammer noises, freezing cold room.
Afterwards, I changed and then was free to leave! They told me to take it easy ("no jogging or running"--like I do that shit anyway), but I had a couple of quick errands to do, so I did those before going home. The whole time my knee continued to feel weird, but didn't hurt.
However, by the time I got home (an hour or so later), I noticed things were changing--the injection site was starting to feel tender, and when I climbed the stairs up to my apartment, I had trouble putting my weight all the way on my bad leg. Ruh roh. So I iced it, put it up--it got worse. By the time I was making dinner, I couldn't even stand on it at all, and could barely shuffle around my apartment (lots of hopping was involved). It was swollen (likely cause it was full of fluid), so I kept it up, and took Aleve. It didn't hurt (more than usual) when I was sitting down, but as soon as I tried to move, it killed.
Happily, its much better this morning--less swollen, though the injection site is still bumpy and looks slightly bruised. Walking DOWN the stairs (and down the curb at the office) totally sucked, though. Good thing I don't have to worry about stairs again for another eight hours or so.
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Next week on "Jackie's Knee Injury": She sees the doctor Monday and hopefully someone knows what's wrong with her!!