This is an MRI scan of my knee.
I'll give you a clue - it's not meant to look like that!
I mentioned in my last post that I was thinking about seeing a different surgeon to look into why I am still getting so much hip and knee pain when I exercise, and a few weeks ago I went to see Dr Arvind who recommended a hip and knee MRI. I went to see him today for the results.
The good news is that my hip labral tear is looking fine - no issues with the scan. The not so good news is that my knee is looking less fine.... in fact it is looking pretty bad. My kneecap is no longer in the right place and that is causing cartilage damage. What you see in the picture is my patella veering off to the left, and the slight white tinge within the patella where it is meeting the bone is where the cartilage is being damaged. This change in circumstance (I say that, because I had an arthoscopy on my knee during all the previous surgeries on my right leg which found it to be in pretty good condition) has probably occurred as a result of the osteotomy changing the way I walk/run etc. So fixing one problem has caused another to come into focus. *sigh* This rotation of my kneecap is also the likely culprit for the hip pain as I am still placing undue pressure on my hip, just for a different reason now. Apparently the catching sensation in my hip is quite common for people with this knee problem.
I listened to all this, and looked at the scan, and I just knew that he wasn't going to say we could fix this with physio! Oh no, nothing can be that simple for me! The only way to fix this is to have ANOTHER OSTEOTOMY, this time on the other end of my tibia (called a Fulkerson's Osteotomy if anyone wants to know more). So they want to break my bone.....again....and move everything around....again.....
I don't know how I didn't blub right there and then, as the prospect of more surgery, and not insignificant surgery too, is something I really wanted to avoid. I feel like I've done my time there, served my penalty for wanting to fulfil my marathon running dream dammit! Why couldn't I just be one of those people who could do the training and run the race and that would be that?!?! (I did warn you about the self pity party......)
This surgery involves another 6 weeks in plaster - 3 of which will be with a straight leg. I only binned the fucking crutches from last time a few months ago!! (I warned you about the swearing too).
I haven't confirmed to Dr Arvind that I will have the surgery yet as I asked him if I could think about it for a little while. He said that was fine, but stressed that I shouldn't put it off for too long as the damage to my knee will only get worse over time, as will the pain, and not having this operation now will probably result in requiring more major surgery at some point down the line.
Fuckity Fuck.
I have dealt with this information in a mature and sensible way - by having a good cry over a cup of tea and a massive slice of chocolate tiffin, and then booking myself in for an additional personal training session tonight to vent my frustration!
So the plan is to cram as much as I can in between now and my 10k in May, and then resign myself to spending some of the summer on crutches. In the next couple of months I will keep at the gym classes and personal training (I can't even contemplate having to miss out on those as they are keeping me sane currently), try and get a few days skiing in, and then we have our two week holiday to Vietnam carried over from last October. The Royal Berkshire 10k is in the middle of May, and I will book in for surgery as soon after that as I can so that I will be well back on my feet before we head to Brecon for a week with friends at the end of July.
Wish me luck, and good humour, because I think I may need it!
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