So Much for Optimism

"Well, you're wearing the perfect kind of pants."

Huh? Not that I thought to question what the radiologist was saying at that moment. I was busy taking in the information that I didn't have to remove them for my new set of knees X-rays, and busy moving into this position and that for each successive shot. Finally, though, I had to ask, "Just what are the wrong kind of pants?"

Turns out they'd be jeans or other heavy materials, stuff that might actually show up in the films, if films is the right term these days. They've gone digital, and that format is more sensitive to certain things, like jeans.

Today was my visit to the orthopedic clinic to see what might be done for my knees short of surgery. I didn't know going in what that might cost, but I was pretty sure it wasn't in the budget yet. My regular doctor had told me about cortisone injections and some other type of injections that might buy me some time. That translates roughly to having more months or years of minimal pain so I could stand to put off surgery and still live a semi-normal life, meaning better than I'm doing these days with no treatment. So I arrived with my forms filled out, my insurance cards, my photo ID, and a small dose of optimism.

My pictures were interesting. Even more interesting if they were somebody else's, but they were mine. The doctor pointed out several things. There is no longer anything keeping the knee bones from rubbing against each other. In fact, they're wearing each other down, and it's happening indentically in both knees. One may have had a several year's head start but the other one's caught up. They're so evenly matched that you could flip one X-ray over, reversed left-to-right, and lay in on the other and not tell them apart.

So. Options.

I could do nothing, just like now, and take pain killers and walk/stand as little as possible.

Cortisone injections might buy time with reduced pain, but they carry a side-effect that I can't deal with right now. Maybe in a few months.

The stuff you inject into the joint has finally been studied, and results show what my doctor suspected from his own observations and patient feedback: they work about 4% of the time. 4%! (Are you feeling lucky today?)

Surgery would mean a front incision, folding the kneecap back, shaving off the rounded bone ends to something flat, and capping with metal. Then a plastic disc would be set between them and I'd be sewn back together. Expect about 6 weeks recovery time, not till I'm all better, but until the nerves recover enough that I can safely drive again, as in moving the foot fast enough and hard enough from the gas to the brake and vice versa. About a year to full recovery, if I do my exercises religiously despite the pain. Repeat with the other knee.

Oh yeah, and figure about $30,000 per each. Plus unpaid time off work.

So yeah, I'll go right out and buy that winning lottery ticket that'll make it all feasible. Uh huh.

Needless to say, I left feeling a trifle less optimistic.