Wednesday, March 30, 2016

#1641 is that a cyst under your kneecap?

I had the CT scan on my right knee today. It was supposed to be done last week, but since I had to have a special metal reduction CT scan, I had to go to University Hospital. I originally had the scan scheduled at a clinic run by University Hospital, but that clinic didn't have the metal reduction scanner, thus the rescheduling at the big hospital. (And it is big. And busy.)

The scan itself was quick and painless. Only my knee had to go into the big tunnel, so there was no claustrophobia for me. The radiologist was going to review the pictures and let my knee surgeon know what he/she saw. I expect to hear from the surgeon on Friday (hopefully) or sometime next week.

The reason I had to have the special scan is because the surgeon thinks I may have a cyst on my right knee between the kneecap bone and the implant. The right knee is the one I had the total joint replacement on in 2012.  The surgeon, Dr. F, asked me if I had any pain in the right knee. The thing about it is that I have a high pain tolerance, plus that knee is made of metal and plastic so I'm not really sure what it's supposed to feel like. There are some days when it feels kind of weird, but I chalk that up to the knee being made of metal.

An additional bummer to this whole thing is that my left knee is starting to have the painful bone-on-bone grind. It pretty much hurts all the time every day and night, just like my right knee did prior to the joint replacement. I've been working to save up money in my HSA account to cover my out-of-pocket expenses to get the left knee replaced. I was hoping to get that done in 2017. If there's a cyst in the right knee that needs to be removed, that will change my plans for the left knee replacement. Sad face :(

Of course, the cyst might be just a shadow that showed up on the x-ray and the CT scan will show that everything is fine. I can't worry about what I don't know, so I'll take some Aleve for the left knee and schedule another cortisone shot with Dr. F sometime soon. The cortisone will get me through about three or maybe four months and we'll hobble through until I can get the left knee replaced.  Such a downer to have arthritis. Also a downer to have mediocre health insurance, at least compared to the coverage I had in 2012.

Well, no use worrying about it now. We'll figure out what we need to do when the time comes.

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