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Knee figured out!
Apr. 21st, 2020 08:06 amTL;DR: syringe full of fluid drained from behind my knee. Cortisone injected through same needle stick. Could put my heel to teh floor immediately! Some pain still, followthrough telemedicine appt in 2 weeks. If still problems, refigure.
Longform:
So I posted on Wednesday the 15th; I heard back from PCP on Thu morning, on the patient portal, saying that she read all my messages, and I could contact this other doctor in her section, because he knows more about musculoskeletal things. The patient portal didn't have a way for me to make a telemedicine appointment with someone who was not already on my provider list, so I had to send a message of "please, I'd like an appointment with you" through a different section of the patient portal. (I didn't wake up till 3pm, and by the time I found the mail from the patient portal it was 5, so I couldn't call.) I did not hear back on Friday, and I was Very Mad. And hurting. I spent the weekend in slowly increasing pain. Even all my pain pills, and new patches on my knee overnight, didn't let me sleep solidly.
Monday (Yesterday, at this point) I woke around 2pm and found a message on my cellphone from the new doc staff. Called them immediately, and they were willing to have me actually come in without a telemedicine visit first. They offered 3:30 and 4pm, and I took the latter, cause I had no clue how long it was going to take me to get downstairs.
My youngest (who'd been put on alert that I was trying for a doc appointment and might not have much notice) wasn't awake yet - I tried his phone (figuring htat would wake him better than an SMS message). I moved as much as I could to get dressed. I finally yelled downstairs and got an answer. While waiting for him to come up I ate some food so I'd have it in my stomach when I was trying to be social, and coudl take my meds so I was already on some pain meds for the trip. He helped me get dressed, and spotted me down the stairs. Which didn't take as much time as I feared, as my other knee had gotten less unhappy (about taking over all the bending duties) over sleep.
I used my new scooter at the doc complex! This visit totally justified the expense. It was easy to set up, it was small enough to go through the doc office (yes, I know that wheelchairs could, but ther'es also the issue of length when turning corners in an hallway, and Youngest didn't have to push me) and into the exam room! Doc came in, talked to me (No, doc, never had something like this happen before.) poked at my knee slightly, used the ultrasound machine that was right there! to look at both knees. "Wow that's a big swollen knee." and "Ok, that's a tiny swollen, but the other one's big." Apparently I had a very swollen knee. So I had a gathering of fluid, which was being part in the front of the joint and part in the back of the joint, could have been set of by anything that stressed the knee, best idea is to drain the fluid with a syringe, inject cortisone, and see what happens. Yes, he could do it now. Woo!
He basically did what dentists do - he numbed the skin, and then injected a numbing agent, before actually using the ultrasound to guide the needle into the joint, to drain the fluid with a syringe. He apparently then left the needle in, rather than trying to guide another needle stick, and attached the cortisone syringe, and did the shot through that way. One bandaid, and done.
Cortisone takes about 2 weeks to completely take effect. So, on May 4th, I have a telemedicine appt to check up. If it's come back, or I'm otherwise miserable (his words!), he sees me on the 5th.
When I got off the table I could put my heel to the floor without thinking.
Did some ingress on the way home. Stopped at panera, ordered through the app on my phone, took delivery through the window into teh back seat of food for me and Youngest, and a pile of pastries. Getting up the stairs to the porch was difficult but not impossible - I couldn't pick up my knee high enough to use that leg to step up, but the other knee wasn't being that cranky. I stayed downstairs and had food and chatted and was in the SOCIAL AREA OF THE HOUSE WOO. And when I felt like my knee was getting stiff, I went upstairs. I did about 12 steps going up 2footed, and then both knees were unhappy, so I did the rest on my left leg, and sat for about 5 minutes, and did the upper flight with just one knee. And I napped a bit from about 7:30 to about 9pm, and I've been awake since. Knee didn't hurt all night. It's a little stiff at the moment, but I've been walking without the crutch all night (to the toilet and such). And I couldn't do that yesterday morning. Woo!
Oh, and I don't know if anyone knows my family well enough to have brought my previous post to the notice of my kids; Thursday afternoon (or evening, I'm not sure) I asked for help doing things, both kids came up to help me, and I didn't get any feelings of "don't wanna" from either of them. Happened the next day also. And one of those times made it so I could be more independent and not asking for help every time I wanted a mug of tea in my room. So yay on various fronts.
Longform:
So I posted on Wednesday the 15th; I heard back from PCP on Thu morning, on the patient portal, saying that she read all my messages, and I could contact this other doctor in her section, because he knows more about musculoskeletal things. The patient portal didn't have a way for me to make a telemedicine appointment with someone who was not already on my provider list, so I had to send a message of "please, I'd like an appointment with you" through a different section of the patient portal. (I didn't wake up till 3pm, and by the time I found the mail from the patient portal it was 5, so I couldn't call.) I did not hear back on Friday, and I was Very Mad. And hurting. I spent the weekend in slowly increasing pain. Even all my pain pills, and new patches on my knee overnight, didn't let me sleep solidly.
Monday (Yesterday, at this point) I woke around 2pm and found a message on my cellphone from the new doc staff. Called them immediately, and they were willing to have me actually come in without a telemedicine visit first. They offered 3:30 and 4pm, and I took the latter, cause I had no clue how long it was going to take me to get downstairs.
My youngest (who'd been put on alert that I was trying for a doc appointment and might not have much notice) wasn't awake yet - I tried his phone (figuring htat would wake him better than an SMS message). I moved as much as I could to get dressed. I finally yelled downstairs and got an answer. While waiting for him to come up I ate some food so I'd have it in my stomach when I was trying to be social, and coudl take my meds so I was already on some pain meds for the trip. He helped me get dressed, and spotted me down the stairs. Which didn't take as much time as I feared, as my other knee had gotten less unhappy (about taking over all the bending duties) over sleep.
I used my new scooter at the doc complex! This visit totally justified the expense. It was easy to set up, it was small enough to go through the doc office (yes, I know that wheelchairs could, but ther'es also the issue of length when turning corners in an hallway, and Youngest didn't have to push me) and into the exam room! Doc came in, talked to me (No, doc, never had something like this happen before.) poked at my knee slightly, used the ultrasound machine that was right there! to look at both knees. "Wow that's a big swollen knee." and "Ok, that's a tiny swollen, but the other one's big." Apparently I had a very swollen knee. So I had a gathering of fluid, which was being part in the front of the joint and part in the back of the joint, could have been set of by anything that stressed the knee, best idea is to drain the fluid with a syringe, inject cortisone, and see what happens. Yes, he could do it now. Woo!
He basically did what dentists do - he numbed the skin, and then injected a numbing agent, before actually using the ultrasound to guide the needle into the joint, to drain the fluid with a syringe. He apparently then left the needle in, rather than trying to guide another needle stick, and attached the cortisone syringe, and did the shot through that way. One bandaid, and done.
Cortisone takes about 2 weeks to completely take effect. So, on May 4th, I have a telemedicine appt to check up. If it's come back, or I'm otherwise miserable (his words!), he sees me on the 5th.
When I got off the table I could put my heel to the floor without thinking.
Did some ingress on the way home. Stopped at panera, ordered through the app on my phone, took delivery through the window into teh back seat of food for me and Youngest, and a pile of pastries. Getting up the stairs to the porch was difficult but not impossible - I couldn't pick up my knee high enough to use that leg to step up, but the other knee wasn't being that cranky. I stayed downstairs and had food and chatted and was in the SOCIAL AREA OF THE HOUSE WOO. And when I felt like my knee was getting stiff, I went upstairs. I did about 12 steps going up 2footed, and then both knees were unhappy, so I did the rest on my left leg, and sat for about 5 minutes, and did the upper flight with just one knee. And I napped a bit from about 7:30 to about 9pm, and I've been awake since. Knee didn't hurt all night. It's a little stiff at the moment, but I've been walking without the crutch all night (to the toilet and such). And I couldn't do that yesterday morning. Woo!
Oh, and I don't know if anyone knows my family well enough to have brought my previous post to the notice of my kids; Thursday afternoon (or evening, I'm not sure) I asked for help doing things, both kids came up to help me, and I didn't get any feelings of "don't wanna" from either of them. Happened the next day also. And one of those times made it so I could be more independent and not asking for help every time I wanted a mug of tea in my room. So yay on various fronts.
