what did you just say?

OK, here’s the deal.  For the last two weeks I’ve been in pain.  Like on a scale of 1 to 10, a 7 pain.  Constantly.  And it’s all in my knee.  My left knee, to be exact.  Because as some of you may recall, I spent SIX months in physical therapy last year for my RIGHT knee.  And guess what?  Not related.  So basically this girl has bum knees.  They don’t know what caused it.  Every visit starts with this:

Them: Are you sure you didn’t have some trauma to it?

Me: Yes

Them: Maybe you fell?

Me: Nope

Them: Car accident?

Me: No.  Oh wait – that’s right I was in a car accident and my knee went through the dashboard! (not)

So I had an x-ray last week and it looked like my knee cap was shifted over to the outside and that was probably what was causing the pain, but they ordered up an MRI to get a closer look.  On Friday I spent 45 minutes in a tube getting pics of my knee and yesterday I got to see those pics.  Ladies and gentlemen, it was not pretty.  It looked something like this:

See that pretty heart shaped bone on the bottom?  The one on top of it is supposed to mirror that.  But notice the missing chunk?  That’s what I’ve got.  It’s what my knee guy first called a “shark bite” then later referred to it as a “pot hole”.  Cuz that’s what y’all want in your knee bone.  A big old gouge.  And that black outline around the outside of the bone?  That’s the cartilage.  Also missing.  And if that’s not enough, I have some deterioration on my knee cap.  Two separate injuries causing this girls some massive pain.  I’ve been driving to work as the walk to and from the train station was unbearable.  And don’t get me started on steps.  My biggest nightmare.  And please note I live in a 3 story house and have a 6 year old. A bad combo all around.

Here are some of the highlights from the report:

A large knee joint effusion is present.  There is some prepatellar fluid.  Medial popliteal fossa cyst measures 5-6 cm.  Subcutaneous edema diffusely.  Degenerative subcortical edema in the patella.  Moderately large osteochondral defect.  Anterior aspect of the lateral femoral condyle.

If anyone has any experience with any of these words, please let me know.  I’m currently at the mercy of this guy:

I’m sure he’s taking good care of me, but what do I know?  He did give me a prescription for an anti-inflammatory pill that seems to be working and promised me a cortisone injection if I still hurt in two weeks.   But he also discussed using cadaver parts to fill in my pot hole.  eww.  

Needless to say, I’m cranky.  So if you see my hobbling, don’t laugh.  It freaking hurts.  

But in more exciting news, I got a shout out on my hero Bean’s blog today!   Click here to check it out….