Chronic pain
Dear All,
I'm a 38-year-old male, who happened to have a very nasty left-knee injury as in all fog I went off the skiing slope and fell to my right side three years ago. The true testament to how bad my injury was is that when I was on the slope and after initial pain had subsided a little and I tried to get back up, my left foot was hanging sideways towards the external side of the leg some 20 cm further down than a straight line from the knee, so MCL complete tear was there for certain, plus, I think, ACL and meniscus tear. I just got light to moderate swelling over the MCL ligament.
First doctor I went to diagnosed the infamous triad with grade 3 ACL and MCL, and prescribed RICE, kneebrace for 2 months and rehab. First MRI confirmed diagnose except they could not see a meniscus tear - which I am confident I have. Second MRI three months after accident, only showed moderate cartilage damage. I thought this was all extremely contradictory to say the least. Then I went to another doctor, who is supposed to be the best in my country - I don't think he is - and said there was nothing wrong with my knee, only a tender ACL insertion into the meniscus, and gave me a cortisone shot directly into the MCL, after which not only did pain subside but it increased rather a lot. I've been to this doctor twice more and the only thing he does is prescribe exercise and charge a lot. Now, I honestly think the cortisone shot stopped my MCL self-repair process.
I used to be an extremely active, sports-loving person, who would play squash 1.5h a day, go jogging and swimming and take as much exercise as possible.
My life and lifestyle and general optimism have dramatically changed since that fateful day, as I have chronic pain at 25º ext. valgus. In fact, I can never lie in bed on my left side with left leg at 25º ext. This pain is always present when I walk and I've had to reprogram my brain to avoid any valgus effort on left leg. I find it extremely strange that the internal side of my knee is still tender to the touch three years after it all happened.
I suspect my main problem is my MCL never healed at all, contrary to most literature saying otherwise. Also, a complete meniscus tear is what I feel is present. As you can imagine, after seeing all the contradictory MRI evidence I am pretty reluctant to undergoing any kind of surgery, as I might find I have my meniscus no longer on waking up, and I'd rather keep my meniscus and pain, which at least allow me to walk, to being left with a sure recipe for long-term arthritis. I feel I can live with the pain deriving from the meniscus, but not that deriving from MCL.
What do you think I should do? I can't live without taking exercise!
Thanks for your attention and speedy recovery to all of you fellow sufferers.
Yours,
JP Roberts
From:
JP Roberts - roberts_jp2@hotmail.com
