June 16 – “Knee-d anything?”

I finally went to the doc about my sore knee.  Didn’t get to see my doctor, of course.  In fact the one I saw was a D.O.  Why is that a deal?  Well, for one thing, I specifically asked when I made the appointment and was told she was an M.D.  Get to know your staff, front desk.  And speaking of the front desk, I questioned their apparent listing of one of my medications twice, and one of them simply scratched a med off the list.  I later began to ponder the differences and realized the reason behind the two listings – a change the doc had made in the frequency of doses.  Got that one straightened out with the doctor. 

The appointment was about what I expected.  Get an X-ray or three and then probably go do some physical therapy and come back in six week if it’s no better.  Right on point there with my anticipations.  We drove straight over to the radiology clinic to get that taken care of.  Quick in and out.  Very efficient.

And then that night I got the email that my results were available on line.  Ready to see them with me?

Imaging of the knee demonstrates moderate medial compartment joint space loss with tricompartmental subchondral sclerosis and marginal osteophyte formation.  A small sized effusion is present.  Posterior intracapsular osseous bodies are present.  Chronic tibial tuberosity enthesophyte fragmentation is seen.  Degenerative tibial spine hypertrophy is present.

So how many of the words did you know?  Here’s what I got out of it …

Imaging of the knee demonstrates moderate blah, blah, blah joint space loss with blah, blah, blah and blah, blah, blah formation.  A small sized blah, blah is present.  Blah, blah, blah bodies are present.  Chronic blah, blah, blah is seen.  Degenerative blah, blah, blah is present.

Great.  So what does it all mean?  Chris and I spent about an hour looking up words and phrases.  I think I have it boiled down to this … “Your knee probably hurts because you are old.”  Yes, it does.  I suppose I am.  Now I have to wait for the doc to call and tell me that, so I can then go to the physical therapist so they can tell me that.  So … here we go …

Psalms 69:13 says, “But I pray to you, O Lord, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation.”

Father, thank you for my knee.  I’ve been pretty attached to it for a long time.  Help me take care of it.  Amen.