My NFL Career ending injuries ;-)

I had all good intentions to blog more often this month, but that sure didn’t happen.

So, what’s new with me?

A few weeks back we were expecting a storm, and so my knees were characteristically aching. Usually when that happens, the knees stop hurting when the storm starts. I’m accurate to within 24 hours. It can be really handy.

This time, the right knee didn’t stop hurting. It kept getting worse, to the point where I decided I needed to go to my doctor. He ordered an MRI and I was able to get in that week. 3 days later he called me with the results. It was so bad that when I asked for pain pills he offered up the heavy duty stuff right away. Let’s just say there is a list of things wrong with the knee, including an almost total tear of my ACL, which would end the season for an NFL player. The damage to my knee is so extensive, that if I were an NFL player I'd be done. (Sad that this is how my brain is wired.)

So I went to an Ortho Surgeon last week. The knee is as bad as it seems and the left one isn’t all that much better. We talked about options, what we could do to get the knee feeling and working better. Option 1 is cortisone. I’m not too crazy about that because it isn’t going to last that long (about a month if it works) and I can only get 3 shots a year. So that saves me 3 months till I have to try something else.

Option 2 is something the doctor called “Rooster shots”. My Mom & Dad both had these shots and they worked really well for them. The product their doctor used is called Synvisc, and is made from rooster combs. Somehow it coats the joint and helps to relieve the pain from arthritis. The treatment will last up to 6 months. My mom had relief for 10 – 11 months.

Option 3 is surgical. It would mean a knee replacement. The replacement knees used to last 10 years so they tried to only put them in folks who were older and wouldn’t have to have a second replacement because of wear and tear. But over the years they’re finding that they replacements are lasting longer, as much as 30 years. So it would be an option for me.

Cortisone isn’t really a good option I think. So it buys me a couple more months. I’m still not going to have as good a result as I hope to get with the Synvisc. So that’s what I’m going to do. The doctor ordered the product and they’ll call me to set up my appointments when it comes in. I’ll have to get 1 shot a week for three weeks.

Keep your fingers crossed that this works for me. If it doesn’t, then the only choice I’ll have is surgery. Honestly, deep down, I know the surgery is inevitable.