Old Knees

Old Knees

Saturday Morning March, 26 2011 (First post in this series).

Well, our “travelogue” blog has taken yet another detour – again for medical issues.

If you have been reading our blog recently, you have been following our daughter Kelly's journey with breast cancer. Right now, there is not much to report, as they are waiting for the BRCA test results and that will guide their decision. She will have surgery in late April. In the interim, I will update her journey as information becomes available.

Since we have canceled our travel for the foreseeable future, I thought I would have a knee issue looked at by a specialist.

First some background. Over the past several years, I have had periodic problems with my right knee. Most of the problems were the result of “dinging” my knee doing something stupid. The first event was a skiing accident when I was in college {dirt had just been invented at the time}.

I had talked to my general practice doctors several times and they laid it off to osteoarthritis and just getting old. There was a tone in their voice that would suggest that they thought I was a wuss. The symptoms have come and gone over the years, but each time they came back, they got worse.

On March 5^th, I went skiing with Damon and the girls and from the time I first got off the lift, I knew I had a problem. I could not control the right ski without huge pain. By the end of the day, my knee was a mess.

I thought the symptoms would go away, but they did not. Damon suggested a clinic where he had shoulder surgery and treatment for a significant back injury. Thursday (3/24/11) I saw Dr. Gersoff and had both X-rays and an MRI. The MRI revealed a fairly significant longitudinal tear in a ligament and a lot of “junk” (cartilage?) in the knee. 

As a result I am scheduled for arthroscopic surgery on April 6^th.

I am impressed with Dr. Gersoff's credentials. He has been involved as a team doctor for several amateur and professional teams (http://www.advancedortho.org/physicians_gersoff.html).

The surgery will be straight forward. It will not require general anesthesia.

I have mixed emotions about the surgery. I don't think anyone wants to have their body invaded, but the pain has become rather persistent and has increased in intensity and I will be glad to get the problem fixed.

Bottom line, I guess I am not as big a wuss as had been suggested {grin}.