#720 I don't want to wait

I made a really big important decision today, and now I don't want to wait to make it happen!

Here's what happened:

I was walking down the hall at work today. I say walking, but honestly, I was probably hobbling a little bit. I was thinking about how much my damn right knee was hurting and that's when it hit me. Most people probably don't walk around in pain all the time. That's where I am - in pain all the time. The pain level varies on a one to ten scale, one being very little pain and ten being lots of pain and discomfort. On a good day, I'm about a seven. Today I was a nine. I've had enough. I don't want this anymore, not when I know there is a way to feel better.

Not too much time passed between that epiphany moment and the time when I made a phone call to an orthopedic surgeon. I am meeting with the surgeon on July 27 and I want to schedule the surgery as soon as he is willing and able to do it. Since I had a cortisone and "chicken grease" injection on June 1, it is possible that the surgery can't be until September. I think the surgeon I spoke to last year said there had to be three months between the time of the last injection and the surgery. I don't really remember.

And no, I didn't actually have chicken grease injected into my knee. It's just that the medicine I had injected, Synvisc, is similar to another medicine that I've had injected, and it contains (or used to) something from a chicken. That became the joke around my office, that I was having my chicken grease injections.

Well, the chicken grease isn't working anymore. It's time to quit messing around and get a new knee joint.

Now I know that there are potential problems with having a surgery and everything. Of course I would prefer not to go under the knife. At this point, though, it seems to be the best alternative. The surgeon I met last year, who has since retired which is why he's not my surgeon this year, told me that there would come a time when I would just be done with the pain and ready to move on. He told me that I was a definite candidate for knee joint replacement and that one the arthritis scale of one to four, I was a six. That's not ok!

So...

I'll try not to obsess about the whole thing too much in the next 16 days. I will be doing a little research online and coming up with questions for the doctor. If you have any suggestions or comments or potential questions I should ask, I would appreciate hearing about it. I sure could use all the help and good wishes I can get!

That's all for tonight, my friends. Have a good one!