Surgery Follow up:
Surgeon confirms that a nerve was growing into the knee joint capsule. Specifically the one that she cut had branches that were traveling into the joint. She maintained that she is “not a knee surgeon and doesn’t know if those nerves were out of place but it’s her theory that they were pushed inward due to the port where I had the original surgery”.
She said that it was hard to even imagine how much pain I have been in because the nerves were in a scar ball of tissue that contributed nothing but pain to the medial side of my knee. My mom always talks about how high our pain tolerance is as a family. It was pretty wild to hear my surgeon tell my nurse case manager that “he clearly hides his pain on the inside because from what I saw in there, it wasn’t good. 100% a nerve was trapped in his joint capsule
She put me back in PT effective ASAP and the hope is that we can strengthen the knee, build muscle, desensitize the nerve, gain mobility, and increase weight bearing. Three times a week, for 8 weeks.
I did almost get emotional when we talked about PT again because for the last 3 years while I was in PT I just had to keep pushing even if it was awful pain. I had to do that because more than 3 times work comp tried to cancel my treatment because they were citing instances in my physical therapy where “patient terminates exercise” or “patient refused to participate in treatment”. The ONLY times that happened was when I just knew the pain was too much to handle… but then… I was so scared of getting cancelled and not getting anymore help… that I started pushing myself PAST where I should have been.
Matter of fact, 4 times I had to go to the ER after PT because of this. They weren’t looking for a solution anymore, they were looking to get rid of me. What an awful system… lemme get back on track with the update, though.
As far as the burning / match-like fire feeling I’m getting around the incision… my surgeon says that “where you are pointing is exactly where I cut the nerves out”. So the hope is that, if it’s phantom nerve pain, it will calm as we do the PT. Otherwise the need to go in and “bury the nerve” arises again. BURYING a nerve is where they go in and cut the nerve further back and then connect it to a muscle where there is blood flow. It tricks the nerve into thinking that it’s continuing on versus “stuck” in its cut state.
My nurse case manager almost got choked up when she saw me today. She said there was an “entire Ora of peace” around me. Haha. Funny you say that… ever had a thunderclap wake you up out of a shame spiral?? That’s how I started my day. She came in looking for ‘sad Joel’ with his crutch or crutches. Instead she found peaceful Joel and he only had to use a cane, today, to leave the house.
Matter of fact, today was the first time I DID NOT use at least ONE crutch when I left the house for the first time in 3 years. Listen… crutch to cane might not sound like it’s a game changer for YOU but I have HAD to use my crutch this whole time to avoid putting weight through my knee because of how painful it’s been. Don’t get me wrong… it’s still feelin like an ice pick jabs me every other long stride… but NOT every, single, step. Careful versus Cautious. Uh oh. Feels like a sermon in the making. Lol.
Careful versus Cautious.
Care versus Caution.
They feel/sound similar… but I think they are wildly different. I was cautious because I KNEW that pain was THERE. Danger was THERE. But now I walk with care… I have to take care of myself so I can keep healing in the right direction. Pain is still very possible and still today, very present.
But moving from walking with caution… to walking with care… is definitely the win of this last surgery.
If, after 8 weeks of PT, that extremely sharp stabbing that I get when I fully extend my leg and fully weight bare, is present… THEN surgery #6 will be a consideration.
I still need to get the epidural for my lower back and this insane sciatica stuff going on, but getting this knee on the right track is HUGE for getting my overall health back in line.
thanks God