Thursday, August 19, 2010

Final Knee Surgery Update

Well, as of 8/18/10 I'm officially on the right road to knee surgery recovery.  All those blood tests, cultures, Xrays and body scans found nothing seriously out of whack with me. 

But my leg still hurts. 

They think it may possibly be due to my sciatica rearing its ugly head.  But it could also be from some remaining inflammation in the knee (not unexpected at this stage).  So they gave me a few anti-inflammatory pills for a few days.  If the pills don't help it then it's probably the sciatica.  If that doesn't work they will declare me 4-F and no longer eligible for the draft.

The fun will begin again sometime next year when they do the right knee.

Friday, August 06, 2010

Knee Surgery Update 3

It has now been over four weeks since surgery and my new knee seems to be working okay, although it is still a bit sensitive.  But I'm still having problems with pain in other areas of my leg. 

My knee surgeon sent me to a Pain Management doctor to see if perhaps a different combination of pain meds would help.  It did but I'm still having some problems with cramps and spasms pretty much all the time.  My foot is also creating a lot of pain because it feels like it is tingling, or extremely hot, or extremely cold, especially at night while I'm trying to sleep. 

He sent me for a bone density scan and the results were interpreted by the surgeon who performed my back surgery two years ago.  He said he thinks it could be due to bone pressing against my nerves.  He wants to perform another Laminectomy.

Meanwhile, my knee surgeon suggested I do another month of physical therapy.  I haven't done that yet because now they want me to undergo a Nuclear White Blood Cell scan.  They are concerned that there may be infection in the leg.  The scheduler for the Nuclear scan said they rarely do this type scan and it takes up pretty much most of the day.  They have to load me up with some glow in the dark stuff.

At least they are trying to find out what is causing the pain.