Dem Old, Creaky Bones

Last Thanksgiving, I hurt my right knee; the end of April, after a long, painful journey to surgery, I had it "fixed." When I returned to the surgeon for the follow-up and asked what he had done, he didn't know: the surgery photos had mysteriously been lost. For the first month post-surgery, my knee was fine; however, for the past 3 months, it hurts as much as it did before I had the surgery.

A couple of weekends ago, when I was with family at USC for water polo, I had to navigate 3 flights of stairs. My knee locked into place and would not let me go up the stairs. I grabbed ahold of the railing and literally pulled myself up, one very painful step at a time. Going back down was no problem, but going up more than made up for that ease of movement. Since that time, my knee constantly feels as if it is on fire and throbs constantly. My right knee area is swollen all the time and often feels as if it is bleeding, perhaps a sensation from cutting through nerves, but disconcerting. When my knee cap locks into place, I stumble and have fallen several times, not a great cause-effect at my age.

Hm, seems as if I've been here before: these are all the symptoms I had before the April surgery!! What the heck could possibly be wrong? If the doctor fixed my torn meniscus, why is there constant pain (which Aleve can't touch), loss of use, and swelling? Again.

I'm going to make an appointment as I've tried all the home remedies I know, including stretching, exercise (I walk every morning), ice to reduce the swelling, and a knee brace. If the doctor "fixed" my knee, why do I have to use all these coping strategies just to make it through each day?! My problem is, of course, that I don't want to go back to the surgeon who obviously didn't do the job correctly the first time -- but won't be able to figure out what he did wrong because he has no evidence of what he did the first time!! It took me several tries to find a surgeon who had the time and the inclination to accept me as a patient the first time, so I doubt it's going to be any easier this time to get an appointment, a diagnosis, and a repair job.

Yep, I'm back where I was from Thanksgiving through the surgery the end of April. I'm limping, in constant pain, and pissed off as hell because I don't have any option except to have it fixed again, go through the recovery process, and pay for the privilege. Dammit.