Medical Update No. 2: Arthroscopic knee surgery

Last Tuesday, I had a colonoscopy, the first of two major medical procedures that I had this month, in back-to-back weeks. Yesterday, I had arthroscopic surgery on my left knee to scope and then repair my meniscus which was diagnosed earlier this summer as “degenerative” from osteoarthritis.

As last week, I’ll keep it (relatively) short:

A few clarifications since I posted this, after questions and comments from followers here and on Instagram:

• I did not post the photos here that I was given, because I was not sure legally if I am allowed to post them, even though they were given to me.
• However, I can tell you they removed a small mass of torn meniscus, which in the photos though microscopic looked like a small golf ball and then crab meat, and then they smoothed the cartilage around the meniscus.
• The meniscus was not the medial meniscus as they thought but the lateral meniscus, which in layman’s terms as I understand it means that it wasn’t on the side but more in the middle.
• The pain that I am feeling after the surgery is different than the pain I felt before the surgery. This is near the two incision points, one on each side of the front knee. It is not the pain I felt on the right side of my knee previously. When I touched that side, I would feel pain. I no longer feel pain there when I touch it.
• Since I have been through physical therapy before, for a couple of months, I already know the exercises that I need to do and can do them at home, and I have large rubber bands. However, I have a neighbor who is friends with one of the physical therapists who treated me during those months and after I know how my leg feels within the next couple of weeks, I might ask him his opinion on the benefit of continued physical therapy. At this point, it’s too early to tell and compared to others, my meniscus tear, though painful at times, especially nights after being on my feet for much of the day at work, was not as bad as many others I have heard of.
• Overall, although it only is the second day since my surgery, I am pleased with my progress (some pain, but not unexpected and being helped with medication) and am hopeful for the near (and distant) future. I know I still have work to do not only on my knee, but on the rest of my body, but with the assistance of my wife on diet and, now that my knee is repaired, with my own help on exercise, I am less apprehensive about what needs to be done.

As for what I’m doing during my convalescence, I wrote about that in last week’s Sunday Salon.