Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Erlynne's MRI Results

I had an MRI on my knee on Monday and met with my orthopedic doctor to follow up today.

Thankfully I do not have any major tears in my ligaments. WHEW!!! I did tear several muscles which are healing nicely. He said I have "chronic cartilage damage" in my knee really close to the joint, so when I pulled the muscles it aggravated everything, causing swelling inside and outside the knee joint.

I have been on crutches for 3 1/2 weeks (since the injury) and I'm still unable to put full weight on the leg or lock my knee without LOTS of pain. So he made me a path to follow. Today, he gave me a Cortizone shot in the knee to bring down the swelling so I have more motion and less pain. He wants me to continue with physical therapy, and he's telling them to "ramp it up and push it a little" from now on.

If I am still having pain in 3 weeks, he'll give me a series of 3 more injections. Joy!

If all those shots and PT workouts don't do the trick, then he's going to go in with a scope and fix the cartilage damage.

I think that's a fair path to follow, and I love him for not jumping straight to the surgery option! I'll just keep up the hard work at physical therapy sessions and at home, think positive, and have faith and hope.

I have incentive... Chris and I are flying to Boston on May 7th to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. He's got a conference to attend there, and we'll stay with Clark & Guinievere & Ben & Cash. Neither of us have ever been there, so we are going to explore and have all sorts of adventures. I certainly don't want to be hobbling around on crutches for that!