My knees have been painful for years. The funny thing about painful knees is that they are aggravated by carrying extra weight, but the fact that you can't move around as much when your knees hurt make it a vicious cycle in trying to keep weight down.
I was diagnosed as having fibromyalsia by my "holistic" MD about three years ago, and he had me on pain pills and Cymbalta (hence the sarcastic parenthesis around "holistic"). About a year ago, with the support of a chiropractor, I went off all of the meds to see how my body was actually doing. It was not long before the pain came back and the chiropractor helplessly tried to fix the pain with acupuncture, which wasn't working at all.
The fact that her efforts weren't helping really frustrated her, so she sent me off to a local hospital for xrays and when they showed nothing remarkable (and specifically no arthritis), she had me take an MRI which came up with an insane diagnosis that I have a Danny DeVito genetic dwarfism disease. Oh, did I mention I have Blue Cross PPO insurance?? This is an important point, because having good insurance seems to be a surefire way to get saddled with a lot of medical testing.
The chiro dutifully embraced the MRI diagnosis and told me that what I have is incurable, but she can do some things to make me more comfortable. At that point, I folded up the MRI report, shoved it in a folder, stopped seeing the chiropractor, and went on with my life. It was an absolutely incomprehensible diagnosis. There is no one in my entire lineage who has anything even remotely like dwarfism and I knew the whole thing was wrong wrong wrong.
I am self-employed, so the knee pain is more of an annoyance than something that keeps me from going about my business. So I sit at my computer a lot, take a few Aleve every day, and keep on keepin' on. But it was difficult to visualize how to help my knee because there seemed to be so much confusion over that was wrong with it. What was causing the pain and the grinding feeling and the stiffness?
About a month ago, I got antsy with the fact that the summer has gone by and I haven't been able to take the walks I love to take with my husband. I figured it was time to get a real diagnosis on what was really going on with my knees. I wanted to find a holistic doc who I haven't been to before because I wanted a fresh start. No luck with that, I find that most holistic practitioners gravitate to family and internal medicine. Chronic headaches? Great. Sore knees? Not so much.
Another fact is that holistic practitioners tend to rely on outsourcing their diagnostic testing and have a generally low comfort level with scientific analysis.
So I made an appointment with the Illinois Bone and Joint Institute. They have strong ties to the University of Illinois Department of Orthopaedics, and they have an excellent reputation for no-nonsense diagnosis. It was my goal to get a solid diagnosis on my knees so I can figure out the best way to increase my mobility and move forward.
The place is top-notch. Very professional. Lovely location overlooking Millennium Park in a Downtown Chicago office highrise. First, two UIC interns spent lots of time with me talking about my situation. I made it abundantly clear that I was looking for a reliable diagnosis and noninvasive protocols for improving my knees. They had me take xrays and I was was very pleased with the way I was treated and with the professionalism of the staff. And they have little paper shorts for knee patients instead of a hospital gown, which was pretty dang adorable.
The xray results came in almost immediately, and the interns showed me the trouble spots in my knees. Mesmerizing! I had never had such a great explanation of where cartilage is supposed to be, where it isn't, and why it hurt. Yup. I have osteoarthritis in both knees. Yup. It's pretty bad. Yup. I can see that it's bone-on-bone. Well, no wonder it was hurting so much and no wonder the acupuncture wasn't helping! Duh!
So then Mr. Big....Doctor Mark Gonzalez whisked into the exam room. After he introduced himself, he immediately told me that I need a full knee replacement in both knees. Four days in the hospital. At least two weeks in rehab. If I could lose 50-60 pounds first, the rehab phase would go a lot better. He showed me on my own xray where the surgery would cut my bones and replace my knees. Whoa whoa whoa whoa!
Then I held out my left hand and said "I'm here right now. 53 years old. I came to see you on the El, walked a couple of blocks to the office, limped a bit, but I had no trouble getting here. I get around okay." Then I held out my right hand about 18 inches away from the left and said, "This is where you are, telling me that you want to cut out both of my knees." Then I gestured to the space between both of my hands and said "I'm really looking for something in the middle."
I swear I was being very nice and polite, but he seemed honestly taken aback that I didn't want to hop on a gurney and let him start cutting me to pieces. He grudgingly said, with more than a bit of condescension, "So do you want a shot? I can give you a shot if you want but it probably won't help." I said that I don't want a cortisone shot. I am looking for something more like a lotion and some physical therapy!
Dr. Gonzalez reiterated that I need a full knee replacement in both knees, and I will probably come to accept that sooner or later, but sure he will have the interns write up prescriptions for a salve and physical therapy if that's what I want. I asked if there is any alternative to the knee replacement, any way to regain cartilage, any way to avoid it. He said flatly "no." So I was done and I left.
As soon as I came home, I googled "Avoid knee replacement surgery" and happily found all sorts of great information, including a YouTube video by the Knee Pain Guru.
http://youtu.be/n_U5vOHwtO0
BINGO! This is exactly what I need!
Fast forward a month. I have been following these exercises and this approach, and I am feeling about 50% better. I still have pain, but I am getting around much more easily. On Sunday, Jim and I took a nice long walk on the Lakefront and it's something we have not been able to do for over a year. It was a glorious sunny fall day and it was so good for my soul! I did laundry yesterday, and the basement stairs were much less troublesome than they had been for a long long time!
I'm not using the toxic creme Dr. "Cuts-Alot" Gonzalez recommended, but I do apply homeopathic Traumeel lotion twice a day and I'm taking homeopathic arnica as well. This is going to work; it really is. Honestly, the main thing I got from the experience is that a good diagnosis gave me a chance to see exactly what is going on in my knees. Now I can visualize growing a cushion of cartilage in those empty spaces. I know what it looks like and I can take an active role in guiding my body to heal itself.
It is really hard for me to admit publicly that I am a candidate for total double knee replacement. I haven't told my dad because I don't want him to worry, and I haven't told many of my friends. I don't want my story to offend my sister-in-law who has had two hips replaced, but also I think it's just hard for me to tell people about this experience. Just hard.
However, I want to share this now because I need to talk about doctors who look only at the extremes in how to deal with our problems. How they don't listen to us and how they really don't think we should have a say in our own healthcare. It's our bodies and it's our reponsibility to decide what we want to do with them!
I also want to raise some awareness that holistic practitioners need to upgrade their ability to interact with the diagnostic tools available in modern "western" medicine so we can have solid data to use in visualizing wellness. We simply can't deal with a problem if we don't have a clear picture of what the problem actually is. Turning your back on the tools that can offer help and hope isn't the best way to help bring holistic medicine into more people's lives and consciousness.
I'm not judging people who choose to have knee replacement surgery, but I know that it is absolutely not right for me.
May health, peace, and wellness be yours,
Jean
