Somewhere along the line of life, I trashed my knees, and now it’s
payback time. It’s not a specific injury or anything like that. My cardio
exercise of choice in my younger days was running; I’ve been reduced for the
past few years to walking, but evidently arthritis doesn’t care.
Back in 2011, I had arthroscopy on both of them. That helped for a
while. Then, in 2014 I had injections of cortisone, which I’m not wild about,
but hyaluronate—that stuff was da bomb. That relief lasted right up until a
couple of months ago, with the exceptions of long days walking the concrete
floors at Grace Hopper conferences or the streets of Prague, Berlin, Paris,
Belfast and Dublin.
My PCP gave me diclofenac gel, which helped—in Dublin I had to
resort to oxycodone (left over from one surgery or another) only once for the
pain. But it’s been getting worse since then. I need to lose weight, and I can’t
exercise if my knees won’t cooperate. Ugh.
So my PCP gave me a referral to an orthopedist, who turns out to
be in the same practice as the one who performed arthroscopy on my shoulder
about 15 years ago. (Turns out I have a lot of joint issues.) Although he’s not
a charmer, I trust this guy’s approach, and fortunately I got an appointment
with him last Thursday. They took X-rays, and no surprises—arthritis.
Well, Dr. Non-charmer asked the usual questions about what’s
helped in the past, and when he asked if I’d had “injections”, I went straight
to the heart of the matter. “Well, I’ve had hyaluronate…” Did it help? “It was
amazing.”
I was a little concerned, because some orthopods rather pooh-pooh
it. But he thought it perfectly reasonable to try what’s worked in the past.
Also, diclofenac tablets and physical therapy, which is literally a pain, but
it’s gotta be done. I do not fancy knee replacements.
He has to order it (and it has to be pre-approved by the insurance
company, because of course they have to be certain that I’m not hankering after
having a hypodermic the size of an apple corer repeatedly stuck between my tibia
and my femur for frivolous reasons), so could be up to six weeks. But I’m happy
to report that the tablets appear to be making a difference in the meantime.
And so, today I’m grateful for the prospect of pain relief and
mobility.
