Determination and Positive Thinking (and a little help from my friends, MRI and cortisone)

I know I haven't done much blogging lately. There hasn't been much to blog about other than working on improving my knee! It was really bothering me this weekend, so I called Saturday morning and made a Monday afternoon appointment to revisit Dr. Story. I climbed the stairs to his 3rd story office rather than ride the elevator. It's weird that climbing stairs doesn't seem to bother it and I have been feeling rather sloth-like without my mega walks, so stairs were inviting. Dr. Story looked at it and said, "well, it's time for an MRI. I can give you cortisone, but at this point I don't know if it's the ligament or the knee itself."

Now, talk about the stars being aligned. The Radiology is right down the hall from Dr. Story's office and miracle of miracles, they had a 2:30 opening. The nurse called my insurance company to get an OK on the MRI and 15 minutes later I was sitting in a cool contraption that was way more comfortable than the brain MRI I had a few years ago. I tried to find a picture of the machine online, but couldn't. This machine was so nice because you sit in a chair and stick your leg in a tube MRI machine. They put noise cancelling headphones on you and there you sit without moving for 30 minutes. Not so bad and certainly NOT claustrophobic.

Dr. Story had instructed me to come right back to the front desk and tell them to get me in STAT. He had to leave shortly after 4:00 to get down to the Mariners game because he is the team Dr. Within 15 minutes, he is back in the room and has read my MRI. Turns out the issue is IN my knee, not around it. He said I have a degenerative tear inside my knee that has been exascerbated by all of the walking. I will likely be a candidate for arthroscopic surgery in the future but no tellling how long that will be once I go back to a normal life (4 miles a day instead of 20). Could be 1 year, 10 years or one month. No way to tell at this point.

We talk a little more about the cortisone and the walk. And he says "I really get the impression that you want to get through this walk." And I said YES with my hands together in a praying posiiton, I will do ANYTHING to get through this. Well, the cortisones maximum effectivemness comes at 2 weeks, so I will be just shy of that. After 3 days I should feel relief. I asked him if I could make the tear worse and he said no. OK! that is good. He said pain is there to help stop you from that, so if you feel pain, STOP. Ice it, elevate it, and see how it goes. No guarentees that the cortisone will be THE answer, but it should be a big help. YES!

I thanked him for hearing me. For hearing how important this walk is and all that I have given up to be here.

On Thursday, I will be taking Bella for a nice little walk and every day there after. There is talk of the team doing a little walk on Saturday, our technical "bye" week, but more like 6 miles. I would LOVE to do that!

Now, it's focusing on the packing, the air mattress test runs, starting to pack the suitcase, all of that. I will be so happy to move beyond focus of the knee. Thank you Dr. Story!