Good news, sort of...

I went to see the orthopedic surgeon this morning. I do have a rather larger Baker's Cyst in the back of my knee from all the arthritis but they are not going to do anything about that at this point. I also do have a horizontal tear in the lateral meniscus but they aren't going to do anything about that at this point either because the surgery could make it worse (and I sure don't want that). My knees are almost bone on bone so that's where the majority of the pain is coming from. So, they are getting a Synvisc injection authorized and once it's okay'd by insurance I'll get that scheduled. Could be up to two weeks until that gets done. There is a 70% chance of the Synvisc decreasing pain in my knee. I'm headed for knee replacement at some point but the more weight I can lose first the better off I'll be before having any surgery.


So the treatment plan is to continue to wear the Lidoderm patch for pain, which does help tremendously, continue taking the anti-inflammatory medicine when needed and get the Synvisc shot as soon as it is approved. I specifically asked about working out at the Y on the bike and treadmill and about hiking and he said I could get back to doing what I can tolerate. That made me so happy. He did say that what I have going on is going to progressively get worse but the Synvisc might take away enough pain that I can get to my goal weight before having to consider any surgery.


I was so ecstatic about all of this that I bought myself some flowers to celebrate! Now it's just a waiting game until the Synvisc injection gets approved. With the holiday it may take longer than 2 weeks but I'm going to get back into the swing of things starting this week. I'll check out the schedule for the arthritis pool class and get going on that and also get signed up for the treadmill class. I can hike too but I have to be careful about inclines and declines (there's only one moderate one on the trail that I hike).


So even though it's not great news, it's good news, sort of... LOL