While it isn’t widely known, in 2005, I had an arthroscopic surgery of my left knee. You may recall that I had fallen through a ceiling in 2001, breaking my mid back, but also injuring my knees and right ankle.
Take it from me, even if you have air conditioner trouble…stay OUT of the attic.
It’s actually not as stupid as it sounds-I did call the service guys, but they refused to come. And we did have a major water leak, through the ceiling light fixtures…putting the whole house in danger from a possible short-caused fire. It seemed like a good idea at the time….
Though the back was my major limiting factor, the knees continued to give me trouble, even after the ankle sprain had healed, without any residual effects. We had moved to Florida, thinking that the heat might make my back feel better (it did) and I spent hours, walking daily to drop any excess weight.
I also tried everything I could to strengthen the left knee, as that was the worse of the two. That included quarter squats and other quadriceps exercises, in an effort to reduce the persistent medial (inner side) joint line pain. But despite my best efforts, the pain was getting worse, even using fish oil and anti-inflammatory drugs, as needed.
So I got an MRI scan and lo and behold, there it was-a torn medial meniscus. After weighing my options and exhausting all the alternative and conventional conservative treatments, I finally decided to get it fixed.
So I went to one of my colleagues, a great guy (whose technical skills were as good as my own. Well…almost J). And on Tax Day, 2005, I had the procedure done, under conscious sedation (ie., with I.V. Versed and local anesthesia). He took lots of photos of the inside of my knee during the surgery and of course, he trimmed the damaged cartilage away, leaving me with a nice, rounded rim of meniscus.
Turns out that I had quite a bit more arthritis in there than I would have thought. He was surprised, too. There was, in fact, one area of chondromalacia grade 4, which means all the way down to the bare bone. This is indistinguishable from osteoarthritis.
Unbelievable! Who would have guessed that? There were other areas of shredded cartilage as well. And all this, with no other injury than that one fall.
Post op, I had a whole new appreciation for what my own surgical patients had been going through for many years. Of course, I probably gave them more local anesthesia in their knees than my surgeon gave me. Let me tell you, when you lower your leg to hobble to the bathroom on crutches, it hurts.
But I healed rapidly and started range of motion exercises, as soon as the pain permitted me to do it. This was followed by progressive strengthening exercises, like those in my recently updated PAIN-FREE PROGRAM & DVD
http://www.drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html /.
In short, I did my own rehabilitation and physical therapy.
It took a couple of months before I was healed enough to walk for exercise, again. And some mild aching continued for over six months. You just can’t get away from it: youth is wasted on the young. Us older guys have to get by, just doin’ the best we can.
Now, if all this is familiar to you, in some respect or another, I just wanted you to know that I understand what you’re going through, first hand. For all my clinical experience, through decades of performing surgery and nearly a quarter century of private practice in orthopaedics, there’s nothing quite like being the patient yourself, to teach you what you really need to know.
And I learned a lot. Even though I did well with the surgery, I learned enough to treat my right knee even more aggressively, with those same knee pain exercises
http://www.drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
and other treatments, so that I’ve been able to avoid surgery on that knee, to this very day. And the odds are good that you can, too. Just click the link and learn what I can teach you about preventing, or getting rid of your knee pain, for good!
Til next time, my friend, be well. And have a great weekend.
Yours for a pain-free tomorrow and your optimal health,
Dr. Bill
“The Wellness Warrior”TM
