My not-so-happy knees...
...are feeling slightly happier these days. The swelling has almost completely disappeared, and I can walk normally again! I only have trouble with stairs, standing up sometimes, and bending them real far, like to crouch down or sit on my knees. What a relief!
The MRI showed no tears in any of the ligaments, only that my menisci (more than one meniscus, cartilage disks in your knees that keep the bones in your thighs from scraping against the bones in your lower legs) had gotten knocked out of place because of all the swelling. Yikes. The best news is that my bloodwork came back NEGATIVE for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Wahoo! They couldn't find anything else in my blood, only that I had a sed rate that was OFF the charts. Sedimentation rate is a non-specific indicator of inflammation in the body. Normal is 0-20. If you get pneumonia or a really bad infection it might go up to thirty, and my doctor says you pretty much NEVER see it go higher than 40. Mine was 83. Woohoo, medical oddity.
Anyway, I'm back visiting my parents again, and I've got an appointment with a rheumatologist in Columbus on Monday, as she thinks it's still some type of arthritis. Best case scenario would be a temporary thing that sometimes happens after you get sick; your body just gets sort of confused and attacks your joints, but once it goes away you're off scott-free. THAT would be good. Especially because I was sick the week before Mystery Diagnosis: Angela's Knees began, so I've got my fingers crossed for that. Meanwhile, I'm on Prednisone, which seems to be prescribed for a wide range of disorders and sort of confuses me, but it seems to be helping, so I'm okay with that.
Best reaction so far came from Ian/Ian of 16th Street fame, the morning after the ominous Pi Party: "I have arthritis! ...I've been playing soccer since I was four." He asked lots of questions and seemed genuinely concerned, while his evil counterpart Adam Rose merely accepted 1000mg of Vicodin and booted me out the door with a few obligatory statements. But, that's a completely separate riff which has very few ties to my knees.
Gyno appointment on Friday and wisdom teeth removal in a few weeks... I haven't been to the doctor this much since I was in high school doing my MDD stint. Hope this one has a better ending, although I can't say I'm expecting a whole lot...
P.S. As it turns out, I didn't have to remove any of my jewelry for the MRI! You have no idea how relieved I was. Yay, at least one good thing!
The MRI showed no tears in any of the ligaments, only that my menisci (more than one meniscus, cartilage disks in your knees that keep the bones in your thighs from scraping against the bones in your lower legs) had gotten knocked out of place because of all the swelling. Yikes. The best news is that my bloodwork came back NEGATIVE for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Wahoo! They couldn't find anything else in my blood, only that I had a sed rate that was OFF the charts. Sedimentation rate is a non-specific indicator of inflammation in the body. Normal is 0-20. If you get pneumonia or a really bad infection it might go up to thirty, and my doctor says you pretty much NEVER see it go higher than 40. Mine was 83. Woohoo, medical oddity.
Anyway, I'm back visiting my parents again, and I've got an appointment with a rheumatologist in Columbus on Monday, as she thinks it's still some type of arthritis. Best case scenario would be a temporary thing that sometimes happens after you get sick; your body just gets sort of confused and attacks your joints, but once it goes away you're off scott-free. THAT would be good. Especially because I was sick the week before Mystery Diagnosis: Angela's Knees began, so I've got my fingers crossed for that. Meanwhile, I'm on Prednisone, which seems to be prescribed for a wide range of disorders and sort of confuses me, but it seems to be helping, so I'm okay with that.
Best reaction so far came from Ian/Ian of 16th Street fame, the morning after the ominous Pi Party: "I have arthritis! ...I've been playing soccer since I was four." He asked lots of questions and seemed genuinely concerned, while his evil counterpart Adam Rose merely accepted 1000mg of Vicodin and booted me out the door with a few obligatory statements. But, that's a completely separate riff which has very few ties to my knees.
Gyno appointment on Friday and wisdom teeth removal in a few weeks... I haven't been to the doctor this much since I was in high school doing my MDD stint. Hope this one has a better ending, although I can't say I'm expecting a whole lot...
P.S. As it turns out, I didn't have to remove any of my jewelry for the MRI! You have no idea how relieved I was. Yay, at least one good thing!
posted by Angela at 1:05 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home