Friday, November 1, 2024

Knee MRI

Got MRI results for my knee; sounds like multiple “complex” tendon tears everywhere. At least, sounds bad. No idea, since I don’t have access to a real doc for another 2 months to interpret the clinical terminology and tell me what to do next. Sad thing is my knee is actually feeling and looking a lot better. How bad was it earlier this year? Has it healed a bit since then, or is it worse from not getting any treatment? How much can tendons heal by themselves? No idea.

General web recommendations are RICE: rest, ice (and elevate), compression, exercise. I can tell you it’s hard to ice and elevate it several times a day, so that’s not gonna happen easily. Maybe beginning and end of the work day, and right before bed? Tried to figure out how to ice and/or elevate it at work before, and propping my foot up on my trash receptacle only made it feel worse b/c it was jammed at a bad angle. I got some ice-packs in anticipation of my surgery. Maybe I can lash them to my knee, but have a feeling it’s not gonna be very comfortable either (gee, isn’t cutting off circulation bad?).

Compression – I did use a compression sleeve earlier this year, but after the steroid rx, it feels worse to use it. We’re talking pain after putting it on, and a lot more pain after taking it off, vs. no or very little pain all day long. It’s not merely pain at the end of a day, not having the helper compression sleeve on. More like pain all night long after using it.

Exercise. Usually after the appropriate time of rest and ice. But what exercise can I do or what is going to make it worse? My PCP isn’t available for two months. I can try to get digital images and take them to a walk-in place. They are probably going to get sick of me.

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