Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Doctor Knee

I went to the doctor about my knee. Finally. She had a mechanical knee model there, which I looked at closely. I showed her on the model knee where it was bothering me and it is a ligament I think or was it a tendon that runs along the side, attaching to the muscle above the knee on the inside. But it lays against the meniscus, which I am probably misspelling.

The doctor thought it was an injury to the ligament/tendon thing, forget which, which runs along the inside side of my knee, top to bottom, and possibly a tear in the meniscus, too, a term I am misspelling. She said it is possible it will heal on its own but if it does not heal in a month, then I need to come back in.

She recommended long bouts of ice exposure for my poor knee, wearing a brace and taking Aleve. I've been doing two of those things already. Now, I'll dig out a knee brace I got long long time ago, when I had a little motorcycle incident, injuring both knees.

It was kind of like psychic diagnosis. I just told her how and where it hurt and she said what she thought it might be. She did not look at my knee.

I told her I'd started an exercise program. I did. I hadn't been at it long before my knee problem arose. I was mainly increasing exercise inside here, whatever I could do, like jogging in place while doing the dishes, sit ups, bicycling movements with my legs while on my back on the floor with my hips and legs extended upwards for peddling. I got inspired by this season of Biggest Loser. I know these aren't huge great wonderful workouts, but the doctor told me I should stop the jogging while dish washing for now.

I came home and researched symptoms for all sorts of knee problems online. None of the symptoms of meniscus tears fit mine. I think I might have tendonitis actually. There is apparently a band of tendons, hip to shin, that also wrap around the knee. Inflammation of this tendon group can result in stinging and burning pain just above the knee cap and the throbbing deep pain I've felt up above my knee running kind of in a line up towards my hip but only about halfway. I believe I have tendonitis, which also fits with over use, which was going on about the time I began having pain. Well that's my own psychic diagnosis. It differs from that of my doctor.

Rest. Aleve. Ice. Stretching. Those are the recommendations I found online for tendonitis of this type. And also this one, a warning from an injured runner: If it hurts, don't do it!

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