What's wrong with my knee?

Clodfobble · 07-05-2008, 08:23 PM

So my appointment with the orthopedist was vaguely disappointing, but not really surprising. He messed around with my knee a bunch and (somehow) determined that my ligaments are fine, it's completely a disintegrating cartilage issue. Which on the one hand is good, because ligament problems are a much bigger deal, but on the other hand they can actually do something about ligaments, whereas with ragged cartilage there are basically no effective treatments at all. They can do surgery to trim the ragged edge clean, but the problem will always recreate itself, sometimes within a month or less.

He said if I start having sudden severe pain, then a piece of cartilage has actually torn off, and they can do surgery to pull that out, but otherwise the only option is physical therapy, which will have limited benefits for me, if any. I'm not inclined to have to go anywhere twice a week for six weeks anyway.

He did say that once I stop being either pregnant or breastfeeding all the damn time, it should get somewhat better, because the crazy hormones make all your cartilage softer and stretchier on purpose, in order to allow your pelvis to widen. Of course in theory by that point I won't be carrying a child up and down the stairs all the time either, so that will also help. He also allowed as how it was entirely possible that I had Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, but as mentioned, it didn't really matter if I did or didn't--the symptoms were going to be whatever they were, and the treatment of them would be the same. I'm obviously not a severe case, and apparently that means I definitely don't have to worry about the rare/severe symptoms. I mentioned how it might be useful to know if my kids had the gene, and he said he could refer me to a geneticist if I really really wanted, but it would be a waste of money, since even knowing they were positive for the gene would still just mean waiting and seeing if any troublesome symptoms ever came up, which we can do anyway.

One funny thing, when he was rotating my leg all around, I kept grimacing at a certain point and he frowned and asked, "is THAT when your knee is hurting?" I said no, my knee hurts when you get to THIS point, THAT point is where my hip hurts, because you're popping it in and out of the socket when you rotate it like that. He said, "Huh... well, we'll probably be seeing you again for your hip in another ten years or so, then."

07-05-2008, 08:23 PM	#30
Clodfobble UNDER CONDITIONAL MITIGATION Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 20,012	So my appointment with the orthopedist was vaguely disappointing, but not really surprising. He messed around with my knee a bunch and (somehow) determined that my ligaments are fine, it's completely a disintegrating cartilage issue. Which on the one hand is good, because ligament problems are a much bigger deal, but on the other hand they can actually do something about ligaments, whereas with ragged cartilage there are basically no effective treatments at all. They can do surgery to trim the ragged edge clean, but the problem will always recreate itself, sometimes within a month or less. He said if I start having sudden severe pain, then a piece of cartilage has actually torn off, and they can do surgery to pull that out, but otherwise the only option is physical therapy, which will have limited benefits for me, if any. I'm not inclined to have to go anywhere twice a week for six weeks anyway. He did say that once I stop being either pregnant or breastfeeding all the damn time, it should get somewhat better, because the crazy hormones make all your cartilage softer and stretchier on purpose, in order to allow your pelvis to widen. Of course in theory by that point I won't be carrying a child up and down the stairs all the time either, so that will also help. He also allowed as how it was entirely possible that I had Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, but as mentioned, it didn't really matter if I did or didn't--the symptoms were going to be whatever they were, and the treatment of them would be the same. I'm obviously not a severe case, and apparently that means I definitely don't have to worry about the rare/severe symptoms. I mentioned how it might be useful to know if my kids had the gene, and he said he could refer me to a geneticist if I really really wanted, but it would be a waste of money, since even knowing they were positive for the gene would still just mean waiting and seeing if any troublesome symptoms ever came up, which we can do anyway. One funny thing, when he was rotating my leg all around, I kept grimacing at a certain point and he frowned and asked, "is THAT when your knee is hurting?" I said no, my knee hurts when you get to THIS point, THAT point is where my hip hurts, because you're popping it in and out of the socket when you rotate it like that. He said, "Huh... well, we'll probably be seeing you again for your hip in another ten years or so, then."

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