The bee's knees

Or should that read "The B****'s Knees"? lol 

Finally, I made it to the orthopedic surgeon about my knee.  I had to go early to do the paperwork.  Holy cow, that took most of my visit between the waiting room, x-rays, and waiting in the exam room, just to finish up the pile of paperwork! 

They had special forms for knee patients, full of multiple choice questions about what I can and can't do.  None of the multiple choice answers included, "It hurts like hell, but I'm doing stuff anyway."

The knee has been bugging me since spring.  I didn't think too much of it at first.  Probably just overuse, biking and working after a long winter.  Toward the end of summer, it was hurting a bit worse, but stuff still had to be done around the farmstead.  A few weeks ago, it progressed to serious pain.  When I say serious pain, I mean OMFG THAT HURTS!, which is about the point I finally broke down and went to the dr.  She referred me to the orthopedic surgeon, an appointment that had to be rescheduled twice before I finally made it there.  By this time, just doing household chores was pure agony; farmstead chores were pure hell.

The doctor was great - very thorough. He manipulated my good knee first, which left me pretty tense, knowing what was coming on the bad knee. Sure enough, I nearly fell off the table in agony when he was twisting my bad knee like a Gumby toy.

My biggest fear was that he'd recommend surgery.  Lately, though, the knee has hurt so badly that I was ready to do the surgery myself...with a spork.  Much to my relief, he said no surgery.  Instead, I get physical therapy for a few weeks.  Even better, I'm under doctor's orders to get back on my bicycle.  JOY!!!!  I've seriously missed riding.  I haven't really had time, and I've been kind of leery to get on my bike with my knee getting steadily worse.  So, now I have to make time to ride, which is kind of a nice excuse to spend an hour out cruising through the falling leaves.

I'm off my knee for a couple of days, at least as much as possible.  I feel pretty guilty about the amount of chores being handed off to Eol, and all the projects now on hold.  It really bugs me to let things go, or to ask someone to do things for me.  I'm not sure that's a bad thing, though.

Of course, if this doesn't work and the knee is still a problem on my follow up visit, we'll explore other options, like a vial of toxic, glow-in-the-dark sludge, injected into my frightened patella.  Or maybe it was just cortisone.  *shrugs*  Beats spork surgery, anyway.