I had the MRI last week and got the MRI results today and the news looks good, kind of. Meaning no lateral meniscus tear that is visible, he thinks I may have some loose stuff floating and/or my knee went through a bit too much wobbling or something that got it inflamed. He did note that I do have a tear in my medial meniscus but it appeared small and since I don't have pain there he wasn't worried (he also knows that I don't have a lot left either as he did my last knee surgery).
We discussed options and he felt my best option was as follows (which I agreed to do).
A cortisone shot today and he asked me to not run long or often over the next 2 weeks, he is hoping that with some rest that the knee will come back to pain free. We discussed how the cortisone shot could mask my pain which could potentially cause additional damage if I got carried away. So he is hopeful that with some rest, I can then run all of the TCM events with ideally no pain, so my plan is to run when I can, walk to recover, repeat and just work my to the finish.
We discussed that there could still be a tear on the lateral side or loose particles and if so the cortisone shot wouldn't help long term or even at TCM and that I should continue to look for signs of catching or the sharp unexpected pain when I resume running and if it happens we will need to discuss things further. Last, he was not optimistic that my knee will ever tolerate uneven surfaces (i.e. trails), I am still optimistic that if I strengthen the muscles around my knee I have a chance (my winter project) but first things first.
He also gave me my MRI scores for my knee (0 - Perfect, 4 - Not good (basically bone on bone).
- Medial meniscus for cushioning 2 to 3, stability - not rated, previously he said a 3 to 4 as all that remains is the outer rim
- Lateral Meniscus - 1 to 2 for cushioning, from what I have read it doesn't help as much with stability, so this seems good
- Articular cartilage - 2 to 3, not great but he said fairly normal for someone my age. So all in all good, hopefully the cortisone helps me get back to normal.
So with this all in mind, stay tuned for my TCM race weekend reports for how things work out. Here what I hope to report:
No comments:
Post a Comment