Orthopedic report

[unixronin]

Today's medical appointment was the orthopedist, who took a fresh set of X-rays of my knees, and upon examining them, more or less said "Your knees are fucked."  The cartilage in my knees is breaking down due to traumatic arthritis, and there's not a whole heck of a lot that can be done about it.  As a temporary measure to try to reduce pain and inflammation, he gave me a large shot of cortisone into my right knee, whereupon I promptly threw up my lunch a few minutes later (a reaction which completely mystifies me, because I've never had a nausea reaction to a shot before).

If the knee pain persists and is still present in six weeks (which I fully expect it will be), there's apparently a succession of progressively more drastic measures that can be taken.  I assume that progression ends with total knee replacement.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

The one thing about it is, given time, money, and pain tolerance, they can pretty much rebuild or replace you from the hips down. Granted, you're a little short on the middle of those three at the moment, but hopefully there are ways around this...

Hey. Does your insurance cover acupuncture? My mother-in-law has been doing that for some time now, and her knees were in about the same state yours are... she's getting better, slowly...

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Aye, the folding green is in short supply, though pain tolerance I have in abundance.

I don't know if acupuncture is covered, and in any case, I haven't found it particularly efficacious when I've tried it. I know chiropractic is not covered. The chiropractor I've been seeing lately for evaluation proposed a course of what amounts to controlled traction, but I'm not convinced it would work, and we can't afford $1800 anyway, even if we were sure of success. I miss Todd Bragg, he knew how to put my spine back into shape. On the other hand, the X-rays this guy took clearly show the problem: my sacrum is rotated back about 15° relative to where it should be.

[bfly.livejournal.com]

Is the other knee foo due to compensating for the injury to the smashed leg, or was it injured at the same time? I can't remember how badly the other leg was banged up.

That's a real bummer, and I know some insurance is reluctant to do knee replacements on younger folks because "they wear out." My mother-in-law has been fighting that battle... at this rate, by the time the $*(^ insurance company feels confident she'll outlive her knee replacements, she won't be active enough to need them.

smashed

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

Both knees were smashed. One has one pin and the other has 3 pins, IIRR. I know one it was basically a pile of rubble and Dr. Golod sort of jig-saw puzzled it back together with bone cement.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

oh man, that's fucked! i wish i could help ya out bro. ~hug~

Knees

[parishnurse.livejournal.com]

How good is that orthopedist at knee replacement? I know a truly good one at the Anderson Orthopedic Clinic in Virginia.

Re: Knees

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

The honest answer is, I don't know. And I don't know what the intervening steps are, or whether it'd actually go so far as a knee replacement.