floating knee caps.
Well, it all started when I was born...no really, I was born with patellafemoral syndrome knees. Of course like most girls, I just thought I had ugly knock knees, and kept right on with my dancing and running and felt fine...until I was 19.
I was in a dance class in college when my knees started to feel "funny." They didn't hurt, they just felt weird. I told my instructor, and she surprised me by saying "GO SEE A DOCTOR NOW!" And that's how the doctor run around began. After seeing various doctors, and having the time pass that changed the feeling in my knees from "weird" to "serious pain" the consensus was that I had Pattelafemoral syndrome. I did lots of leg lifts and taping for a while...it wasn't working.
I was anxious to be well enough to go on a full-time mission for my church, so when a doc said he could try a latteral release, I instantly agreed. I had some terrible insurance issues (double coverage, and not one of them paid). But I had an awsome physical therapist.
My surgeries were two moths apart, and my recovery was fast. I soon went on a mission to Portugal. If you've ever been to Portugal, you would know that there are stairs everywhere, and the sidewalks are all cobblestone...and as a missionary, I walked everywhere, all day long. So, about one year post-op. I started to get that weird feeling again, and then I started to find it hard to stand on one leg at all. And then came that old familiar pain. Finally my companion convinced me to call the mission doc. He had me on 1800 mg of Ibruprofin every day to deal with the inflamation...being that drugged up, I didn't feel anything...for a while. I started using one of those big umbrellas as a cane, and eventually the mission president sent me to get x-rays and see a serious doc. The hospital in Lisbon is soo fancy and everyone called me Dona Daisy. Well the results showed subluxing knees or "floating knee caps" - a result of the Lateral releases gone wrong.
I finally looked down at my knees and noticed that when I straighten my leg my knee caps are in the upper inner corner, and when I bend them, my knee caps go to the outer lower corner. Okay, between that and the doctors orders not to go upstairs (hello, everyone in portugal lives upstairs)...they finally decided to send me home. Utterly heartbreaking.
Back at home I saw the head orthopedic surgeon of the hospital. Again, exercises, again taping, we tried cortizone shots, and synvisc (so painful going in)...no good...but he scares me silly from getting surgery, saying I'll end up worse off than I am, so I leave the state in pursuit of my career deciding just to deal with it. After all I sit at a desk all day for my job.
But as time has passed, I'm getting frustrated again. I'm 24, and my my husband and I are talking about having children...and I don't think I can handle the weight gain of pregnancy, nor the kneeling and chasing of small children. I often go to the grocery store, or library, and end up in too much pain to keep walking...and it's not just that, I get grouchy when I'm in pain, and that effects my marriage.
Recently my family doc prescribed tylenol with codein to address the pain because he feared what all the ibruprofin was doing to my stomach. He also said I should seek out some sort exercise because while being sedentary helps me not to hurt, it doesn't help the rest of my overall health. I've just begun to timidly start trying to use a gazell, followed by ice and pain killers.
I'm going to see a knee specialist in a week, and I can't believe it, but I'm going to ask about getting a TTT, or some other drastic measure to help me. I'm hoping that all the time money and pain will be worth it in the end. I'm trying to stay happy and hopeful, but I'm afraid I'm rather jaded with the whole situation and the whole medical world.
I'd be happy to hear from anyone who has (or had) floating knee caps. I'd also love to hear from anyone that has had a TTT to know how successful it was.
From:
Daisy - daisykristina@yahoo.com
