Whit's Knee - The plot thickens
Alright, so.
Yesterday I went to visit Dr Kevin Stone at his clinic in the Marina called the Stone Clinic. It's a fancy place with a full Physical Therapy team and their own MRI machine for limbs and all the bells and whistles. The first thing they had me do was get an MRI. Took about 45 minutes and made a lot whirring and clicking noises that put me to sleep.
The doc and I looked at the MRI together on his computer screen, checking out all three perspectives, and going through my knee like a slide show of slices. He says, "See this space? This is where, if you had an ACL, it would be. See this bit over here? That's what's left of your MCL." I likened the MCL to a wind sock, as it flapped about in the fluid between my bones and my skin.
Full MCL tears are really rare. MCL's actually have two heads that attach on the shin side, one right near the knee and one a little further down. Usually, if someone manages a serious enough tear, only one of those actually tears fully so the tension is still held. I managed to pop the upper head off and tear the one that attaches further down. I also have a pretty hefty bone bruise, which is apparently treated a lot like a stress fracture and is pretty common with ACL tears.
He says I have too much swelling to go under the knife immediately. He wants me on a thorough daily PT schedule for the next 10 days to 2 weeks to get the swelling down and reassess. He definitely wants to use cadaver tissue. The reattachment for the MCL is kind of a delicate thing and isn't done very often. And it the bone bruise hasn't healed by then, they might have to scrape some stem cells from one side of my femur head and make a little paste to put on the bruise to encourage it to heal.
Then after that would be a pretty hefty PT schedule. He thinks he can get me back to starting work in 2 months.
I really like this Doc. They were super thorough, super polite. They believe whole heartedly in the value of PT. They're also not cheap, but you know what? He wants to make this doable for me. Since I am the daughter of his brother's friend, he wants to give me the friends and family discount. I'm hoping I can get all of this to happen near $25,000 including all of my PT and surgery. We shall see. It's still HUGE, but there was a point where I thought I couldn't do it under 50,000 after all was said and done. So I'm feeling optimistic.
I'm so stoked to have PT homework. Even if I end up going with another Dr, having stuff to do throughout the day that I know will be helping my body recover feels really good. And I understand my pt and know how to do it well. And heliocide all about using all of his Chinese Medicine tools to help me get the swelling down. We're bordering on competitive about it. The doc says it'll take two weeks? Lets see if we can have it on his desk by Monday! I like being proactive.
I'm debating getting a 3rd opinion since the 1st two docs disagreed on so many things. I'm also looking into a PT office in the East Bay that I can get some care between now and surgery, since Dr Stone wants me to come in every day and he's in the Marina, which is a ways from Oakland when you can't drive. Either way, I'll be needing rides to places regularly.
I am beyond overwhelmed with all the love that's coming out. From all different directions in all different ways. From bringing food to house cleaning, to making me laugh, to doing research, to giving rides, to helping get the word out, to organizing fundraising, etc, etc. It's fucking amazing. I know some amazing people. doppmonster wrote this ridiculously sweet blog post about me that totally made me cry. I could write several blog posts documenting all the incredibly ways people are stepping up to help out. It's breath taking. The gratitude, it is huge. I don't know how the fuck I'd do any of this without y'all.
Oh! And I am planning on coming out to Hubba tonight. I'm not going to be singing, but i'll be enjoying the show. I couldn't miss the one that I'm the flyer girl for, nor a friend's choreographing debut. Besides, westwithenight made me this AWESOME cave girl fur bra - how could I not wear that thing? Come say hi, if you're coming out.
Yesterday I went to visit Dr Kevin Stone at his clinic in the Marina called the Stone Clinic. It's a fancy place with a full Physical Therapy team and their own MRI machine for limbs and all the bells and whistles. The first thing they had me do was get an MRI. Took about 45 minutes and made a lot whirring and clicking noises that put me to sleep.
The doc and I looked at the MRI together on his computer screen, checking out all three perspectives, and going through my knee like a slide show of slices. He says, "See this space? This is where, if you had an ACL, it would be. See this bit over here? That's what's left of your MCL." I likened the MCL to a wind sock, as it flapped about in the fluid between my bones and my skin.
Full MCL tears are really rare. MCL's actually have two heads that attach on the shin side, one right near the knee and one a little further down. Usually, if someone manages a serious enough tear, only one of those actually tears fully so the tension is still held. I managed to pop the upper head off and tear the one that attaches further down. I also have a pretty hefty bone bruise, which is apparently treated a lot like a stress fracture and is pretty common with ACL tears.
He says I have too much swelling to go under the knife immediately. He wants me on a thorough daily PT schedule for the next 10 days to 2 weeks to get the swelling down and reassess. He definitely wants to use cadaver tissue. The reattachment for the MCL is kind of a delicate thing and isn't done very often. And it the bone bruise hasn't healed by then, they might have to scrape some stem cells from one side of my femur head and make a little paste to put on the bruise to encourage it to heal.
Then after that would be a pretty hefty PT schedule. He thinks he can get me back to starting work in 2 months.
I really like this Doc. They were super thorough, super polite. They believe whole heartedly in the value of PT. They're also not cheap, but you know what? He wants to make this doable for me. Since I am the daughter of his brother's friend, he wants to give me the friends and family discount. I'm hoping I can get all of this to happen near $25,000 including all of my PT and surgery. We shall see. It's still HUGE, but there was a point where I thought I couldn't do it under 50,000 after all was said and done. So I'm feeling optimistic.
I'm so stoked to have PT homework. Even if I end up going with another Dr, having stuff to do throughout the day that I know will be helping my body recover feels really good. And I understand my pt and know how to do it well. And heliocide all about using all of his Chinese Medicine tools to help me get the swelling down. We're bordering on competitive about it. The doc says it'll take two weeks? Lets see if we can have it on his desk by Monday! I like being proactive.
I'm debating getting a 3rd opinion since the 1st two docs disagreed on so many things. I'm also looking into a PT office in the East Bay that I can get some care between now and surgery, since Dr Stone wants me to come in every day and he's in the Marina, which is a ways from Oakland when you can't drive. Either way, I'll be needing rides to places regularly.
I am beyond overwhelmed with all the love that's coming out. From all different directions in all different ways. From bringing food to house cleaning, to making me laugh, to doing research, to giving rides, to helping get the word out, to organizing fundraising, etc, etc. It's fucking amazing. I know some amazing people. doppmonster wrote this ridiculously sweet blog post about me that totally made me cry. I could write several blog posts documenting all the incredibly ways people are stepping up to help out. It's breath taking. The gratitude, it is huge. I don't know how the fuck I'd do any of this without y'all.
Oh! And I am planning on coming out to Hubba tonight. I'm not going to be singing, but i'll be enjoying the show. I couldn't miss the one that I'm the flyer girl for, nor a friend's choreographing debut. Besides, westwithenight made me this AWESOME cave girl fur bra - how could I not wear that thing? Come say hi, if you're coming out.