Stuck in a Tube

A week ago (February 3) the Physician Assistant at the University of Rochester Medical Center examined my knee. She grabbed my knee and bent it in several directions, thought it had atrophied some compared to my right knee and was still a bit swollen. The injury to my left knee happened on 12/23 when I fell about 50 yards from completing a four mile run.

The PA looked at the x-ray and found some calcium deposits above the knee cap. There was no way to know if these were from the injury or had been building up for some time. She scheduled me for an MRI, hoping to find what else, if anything, might be wrong with the knee. It didn't seem like there were any ACL or meniscus tears and maybe the calcium is the only problem, that, recovering from a possible sprain, and being as old as dirt.

The PA said to absolutely stop any attempt at running :( . I could swim, but not push off the wall with my left knee, bike, but easy and stop trying to stand and pedal. Basically if it hurt I wasn't supposed to do it. Sitting at my work desk is actually pretty uncomfortable, but I couldn't get out of that for weeks so I just get up and walk around a lot. 

Yesterday (2/11) I went in for the MRI. One great thing about the URMC is their efficiency. If you have a 7:30 appointment you are in within a couple of minutes. I wish other places had such great customer service. Thinking I may have to expose my knee I wore running shorts and sweat pants. After weeks of not running it felt nice wearing running shorts again. That may sound weird, but it's true. An assistant took me back to the MRI area and had me change into a regulation robe, the kind that ties near the neck and shows everything in the back. I could keep my underwear on, in this case running shorts so it didn't bother me if people could see my backside.

The MRI technician put me on a table with my feet headed into the tube. I was only going in up to my chest, which was a relief. Closed spaces like that do not make me feel comfortable.

The technician gave me an emergency button, said the test would take about 20 minutes and left the room. That's when I panicked and the inner voice began; "What if I have to go to the bathroom? I didn't even think about going before the test! Oh God. I'm going to have to squeeze the panic button and announce I have to pee! No, act like an adult and hold it dammit. Twenty minutes, you can wait 20 minutes." Finally I calmed down and realized that maybe I didn't have to pee. I was so happy I made the decision not to have coffee before the exam.

The machine noise was weird and loud. The earplugs really didn't help much. But the digital clock above my head counting down was like doing intervals. The Tech would say, "this will take 2 minutes, or 6 minutes, with rest intervals in-between. So I would close my eyes and count or pretend I was doing laps in a pool. The test was over fairly quickly really, and off I went, happy my whole body wasn't stuck in the tube.

Now it's just waiting for the surgeon to decide what steps to take next. Unfortunately I don't see him for two weeks, so it's back to the weight room, pool and indoor biking for me.

Footnote: emailed URMC at 10am today, got a message back from the PA before noon. This is the diagnosis; "Partial thickness tear of the central posterior fibers of the distal quadriceps tendon with approximately 0.5 cm of tendon retraction of the posterior fibers. No meniscus or ligament injury.

We usually treat this with physical therapy." 
Next time listen to your wife idiot, and get to a doctor sooner (I may be making that sentence up).
Still going to the surgeon on 2/26, need to find out about the calcium deposits.