I’m writing a post on my diagnosis after the surgery to help others in the same, or similar situation. This post is to describe where and how bad the osteoarthritis is in my knees.
My kneecap isn’t loose, they’ve just made the picture like that to show the cartilage behind it. Where it says Arthrosis, it should really be Osteoarthritis. The reason for the wrong word being used in the image is that Osteoarthritis is called ‘Astrose’ in Norway, and I was in a bit of a hurry when I made it. As you can see by the picture, most of the damage is located on the outer part of the knee joint.
Both of the meniscus and all of the tendons are OK, apart from a degeneration at the back of one meniscus. The surgeon also removed parts of the membrane inside the capsule. This was done due to changes caused by the inflammation.
In the year after the surgery on my left knee, it’s become just as bad as my right knee. So I suspect the picture’s about the same there.I didn’t get a detailed description of my left knee, but judging by where it hurts, I’d say it’s about the same. Both in the degree of damage, and also when it comes to the location of the damage.
The surgeon had written that I need to continue with the physical therapy, to postpone a knee replacement as far into the future as possible. Here in Norway, they only do joint replacements after pain medication isn’t enough anymore, or if the misalignment of the joint gets really bad. I hope that won’t happen anytime soon. I can’t say I’m looking forward to not having full mobility. I heard somewhere that you can’t bend an artificial joint past 90 degrees. I’m used to being borderline hypermobile, so that would be a significant change for me.
My physician gave me a prescription to increase my morning dose of painkillers. I’m on a 12-hour pill twice a day, with two hours overlap. This might be changed to three 12 hour pills a day with overlap, or one 24 hour pill. The doc said that if we can’t find a solution in pain management, we might have to find one in decreased workload (not the load on the knee, but the fact that I work full time).
I’m thinking of applying for a parking permit, and I’m going to talk to my boss about this.
