As I begin to write this post I realize that it could have the same title as the one I wrote 2 months ago. At that time I thought I was on the path back to running soon and that it would only be a matter of time before I could see the track again. Not so much.
The past two months
At the recommendation of the surgeon I made an appointment at the Physical Therapy center in Sunnyvale. My PT Scott, unlike the orthopedic surgeon, spent the time to really examine my knee. He watched me squat on one leg, had me run on the treadmill for 5 minutes, watching my stride from all angles and tested my flexibility. He finished the exam by poking and prodding the knee, swinging it at different angles and feeling for swelling. He was able to show that a circle he had drawn in pen at the beginning of the appointment had swelled up considerably with just the 5 minute run and knew that the best treatment to begin with was an ionto patch. The patch is like a portable one-use tens machine. It is a plaster (bandaid) with a small battery. Scott's assistant iced my knee for 5 minutes, then applied anti-inflammatory gel to the patch and placed it over the swollen area. I had to leave it on for 6 hours and then just throw it away. Over the course of the next weeks, I attended the clinic twice a week and each time received an ionto patch. Slowly it began to burn my skin and after a while the skin around my knee became dry and hard.
Eventually, Scott pronounced me ready to try strengthening exercises as well as a light run. He instructed me to stop running if I felt any pain. At this stage I was dying to get back on my feet and well aware that I really hadn't been as good at keeping up the cross training as I originally intended. I could feel my fitness slipping away. I decided to try out the treadmill for the first run back, giving myself the chance to stop if needed. I ran 4 miles, and, Man!, was it hard. My heart rate was up in the high 170s the whole way, but it felt good to run again and to push through. There were a few tweaks in my knee from around mile 2.5 onwards but they really were just tweaks and I figured I was just being hyper sensitive. Unfortunately I was wrong and the next day my knee was swollen again. Scott didn't exactly scold me, but he sighed a bit when he saw it and we were back to the ionto patches.
2 weeks later and I was reaching the end of the PT sessions that my insurance would pay for. I was getting a little desperate because if I wasn't fixed by now I didn't know what to do. Before the last session Scott told me to run again and this time to STOP when I felt pain. I felt good going out but surely enough around mile 2.5 the pain returned so I walked back, frustrated, angry and a little teary. When I saw Scott the next day, he was baffled. He didn't know what was wrong and advised me to go back to the orthopedic surgeon to get an MRI. By now, I was feeling so fed up with the whole affair. Each appointment takes another week to schedule and adds another week of time when I'm not running. Summer season with TNT started and got going without me.
So back to the surgeon I went. This appointment was even shorter than the last, coming in at what must be a record breaking 90 seconds. The doctor barely listened to what I had to say, agreed that the next step was to schedule an MRI and left me to schedule it with his assistant. Luckily I was able to make the appointment just one week later and get an appointment with him to get the results the next day (today).
Today
So here we are, and I'm back to the title of the last post. No surgery for me. Apparently my right knee is in perfect shape, nothing wrong that can be seen on the MRI, no reason I shouldn't run. I wish I could tell you I'm thrilled with the news but it leaves me with more questions than anything else. The surgeon gave me a cortisone injection right into my knee in an effort to reduce any swelling there. He said it was OK to do that because he wasn't sending me out running on a damaged knee. If I can run now without pain, there's no problem. But where is the pain coming from in the first place? What if it comes back? Is there anything I can do to prevent it coming back in the future? He couldn't answer any of these questions. I asked if I should call his office or someone else if it reoccurs and he answered, "Let's hope it doesn't," so flippantly and in such an obvious brush-off that I was extremely irritated. It was obvious that he wanted me out of that office as soon as possible.
Is it really too much to ask that doctors have a better bedside manner than this? I cried after every appointment with him because I was so nervous and it meant so much to me. He either ignored what I had to say or talked so fast and gave me so much information in one go that I was overwhelmed. He asked me barely any questions and was so anxious to get out of the room each time that I was left blinking in surprise and wishing I had the chance to take a breath and think about what I wanted to ask him before he left.
But emotional trauma aside, the one thing I do know now is that I can run. I'm not further damaging an injured knee by pushing through the pain. I'm going to go to track tomorrow night and work my butt off. Keep your fingers crossed for me that my knee doesn't explode in response...
