(resurrecting old post.)
OK, the jury is in. L knee MRI that showed meniscus tear was 2 years ago. It's held steady without causing much trouble unless I tried to move something heavy with my L foot, so I ignored it. A month ago, I decided that I'd like to be able to ski and be active again, so I'd better get it fixed. I went to the GP asking for a referral to a knee doc. The manipulations he did to confirm the diagnosis really flared things up and I've been quite bad ever since. I've gone from being able to avoid the painful movements, to having 5/10 pain probably 70% of the time with several bouts of 9/10 pain that last several minutes every day. I just returned from a 12 day trip for client surgeries and I was worried that the knee was going to abort the trip.
Luckily, I ran the gauntlet with the new, so called 'managed health care' and already had the surgery scheduled. TODAY, I'll have the arthroscopic cleanup.
I was surprised that the surgeon did not want an updated MRI as the last imaging was 2 years old. His reply indicated that MRI's are of limited value for knees and that the absolute best view is from inside during the surgery. My R knee (operated on in 2003) had significant problems with 'dead bone' on the end of my femur. There are some bone issues called out on the 2007 MRI, but nothing like we saw in the R knee. I'm uncomfortable moving forward without new imaging but cannot afford to get things done properly. I'm moving forward because cleaning up the tear is a simple surgery and if there are further problems later, repeat surgery will not be impaired by the prior surgery.
Wish me luck!
Mark
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