Survival and Emergency Preparedness

I have entered the group that has suffered from a knee injury.

Last Friday at the gym felt a little tweak in the left knee, didn't think much about it, kept working out.

Friday night, could hardly bend my knee. Saturday morning, knee all swollen and painful. Started the ice and elevate routine.

Sunday morning went to urgent care. Doctor made me cry as he tried to bend the knee. Gave me pain medicine and referral to an orthopedic. So, Wednesday the 10th, I will be seeing ortho doctor to see if I just have a nasty sprain or if I have torn something up.

Not a happy camper right now.

Bmyers wrote: ↑Thu May 04, 2023 7:28 am I have entered the group that has suffered from a knee injury.

Last Friday at the gym felt a little tweak in the left knee, didn't think much about it, kept working out.

Friday night, could hardly bend my knee. Saturday morning, knee all swollen and painful. Started the ice and elevate routine.

Sunday morning went to urgent care. Doctor made me cry as he tried to bend the knee. Gave me pain medicine and referral to an orthopedic. So, Wednesday the 10th, I will be seeing ortho doctor to see if I just have a nasty sprain or if I have torn something up.

Not a happy camper right now.

Yikes....that doesn't sound good.

The good news is that they can repair torn ligaments now in out patient setting. My daughter torn a ligament in her knee and had it replaced. In and out the same day.

I tore my ligament and cartilage 30-40 years ago and they couldn't do anything. Not sure what they do with cartilage/meniscus these days.

I will let you know what I find out next Wednesday. Still hoping for just a really bad strain, yet I would think 7 days of rest, ice, and elevation that it would be doing better than I'm doing.

Got good news and a little bad news.

The good news, there doesn't appear to be any torn or damage cartilage.

The bad news, the doctor initially thought that I had gout in the knee. He was going to drain the fluid and then inject medicine and start the treatment for gout. He was drawing the fluid and took out 30cc and said he wasn't going to be injecting any medicine right now. He explained the fluid came out cloudy which now makes him suspect an infection is going on in the knee.

So, he sent off the fluid for testing and waiting the results. Most likely will hear something on Friday. If it is just gout, I will go back, he will drain more fluid and inject medicine and I will see my primary for treatment to prevent it again. Oddly enough, intense exercise can cause the acid to increase and gout develop. Well over the last month I had been increasing the amount of weight I had been working out with, increasing the speed on the treadmill and the grade. The exercise I was doing to get healthy could be the very cause of my knee pain.

If it is an infection, I will have to have surgery, he will go in and scrape the knee out, give it a good cleaning, and then medicine. It will be a little longer recovery, but still should be no permanent damage.

I'm excited that nothing long term is wrong and that this little hiccup in life can be corrected over the next few weeks without any lasting affects. Plus, I actually feel MUCH better today with the fluid removed, although the doctor cautioned me that it is only temporary since we haven't dealt with the underlying problem yet. He said enjoy the next 48 hours or so, but don't be surprise when it swells back up until we get the issue that is causing it dealt with.

Didn't realize gout was still a thing

Yep, it is caused by acid build up in the joints.

No infection in the knee, the ortho has referred me to a rheumatologist. Since he has drained the fluid the knee is much better. Still not perfect, but I went back to the gym today. I figure I'm going to keep working out, not as hard, till they tell me I can't. I have lost 16lbs and I want to keep that going. Sitting around on the sofa won't help the weight to come off.

Well, the saga continues with the knee.

After seeing a the rheumatologist, 28 x-rays, ultrasound of the hands, and 14 tubes of blood, I found out a lot of good news. I can give you a whole list of diseases I don't have related to arthritis/the immune system.

This led to another follow up visit to the ortho who then thought I had a meniscus tear.

Well, a trip to the MRI and no tears. The problem I have is referred to as 'runner's knee' or moderate chondritis.

The simple explanation is my cartilage in my knee is degenerating. It is similar to arthritis in the knee, but different. Both involve cartilage degeneration, but the way they present is different.

Arthritis is aching in general and increases when pressure is put on the knee/leg.

The 'runner's knee' is pain when bending the knee, such as in running, climbing steps, going from sitting to standing. In addition, when the knee moves you hear and/or feel crackling in the knee. When I climb steps it sounds like I'm stepping on bubble wrap.

So, the general treatment is RICE, anti-inflammatory. Physical therapy and probably a visit to a podiatrist to have them check my feet to make sure I'm walking 'properly'. Steroid shots are also used and eventually when the leg no longer wants to bend then a knee replacement.

Although if i lose more weight, walk on even/flat surfaces, and wear decent, supportive shoes, I can delay the need for knee replacement.

I'm just glad to finally know what is going on.

Good to hear it's not as bad as orig thought...

My knee experience was a good fall onto knee... swollen for a week then ok. 3+ yrs down the road bad knee pain. Found out the knee was messed up from fall with a badly torn up meniscus. Tried corticosteroids injections and then hyaluronic acid ( knee gel ).
Ended with full knee replaced.

So, been there , got the tee-shirt

A routine trigger finger surgery. Third finger. The tendons to a finger are within a sheath. If a person lives long enough, there will be difficult in moving a finger or pain. The sheath is cleaned out a bit in about a 15 minute out patient surgery. A couple of weeks later, the stitches are removed.

I bring See's candy for the doctor and the nurses.

bdcochran wrote: ↑Sun Nov 26, 2023 12:26 am A routine trigger finger surgery. Third finger. The tendons to a finger are within a sheath. If a person lives long enough, there will be difficult in moving a finger or pain. The sheath is cleaned out a bit in about a 15 minute out patient surgery. A couple of weeks later, the stitches are removed.

I bring See's candy for the doctor and the nurses.

Good luck, hope all goes well.