Arthroscopy of the Knee

While everything has largely been going well with my foot recovery process, the pain in my knee has not decreased and has worsened as I put more weight on the foot and do more exercises at therapy. It reached a stage where it was difficult to fall asleep at night and so I took a trip to the orthopaedist on Monday. He did x-rays and neither those nor the MRI from January explain why the pain is so severe. He now wants to perform an arthroscopy of my knee to enable him to diagnose and treat the problem. For those who don’t know (and I didn’t either until he told me) it’s a minimally invasive surgery that allows the surgeon to diagnose and treat problems without open knee surgery- a few small incisions are made through which an arthroscope (pen shaped instrument which has a tiny video camera and light source attached) is inserted, allowing the surgeon to view inside the joint and if necessary operate using small instruments inserted through tiny separate incisions. As arthroscopy only requires a few small incisions, there is usually no need to stay in the hospital more than a few hours after surgery, the healing and recovery process is much quicker and there is not much scarring. Most patients are able to return to work within a week and once all the post surgery recovery exercises and steps are done, full recovery is expected.

This all sounds rather straightforward but it is a surgical procedure, something which I am not exactly enthusiastic about! I was relieved that the tendons in my foot healed without surgery but now my knee has decided to be stubborn! The doctor’s office has scheduled the arthroscopy for July 11th subject to insurance approval, but I have not yet made a final decision on if to have it done- while the pain I am feeling has me leaning towards the surgery, I still have some doubts. I am scared that I may not be able to run, play cricket, swim, scuba dive, work out at the gym or do all the travelling I plan to do in the future. I have been doing research and I also plan to go back to speak to the doctor about the lingering doubts.

As if my knee’s misbehaviour isn’t enough my foot has been hurting more than the usual since yesterday evening and today I started using the cane again to take some of the weight off of it. I can definitely see myself taking a painkiller tonight to help me sleep.