I went to the doctor last Monday to discuss my MRI results. As we figured, it’s arthritis under my patella, which means I have a few options.
Option 1: Physical Therapy. Not what I was hoping (I am notoriously bad at following through on such things), but it’s definitely the most reasonable option at the moment. I will likely start that after next week, which is Jillian’s spring break. I’m to do PT for a month and then head to the doctor again to see what’s happening there.
Option 2: Surgery. While my “fix it now” bones are tickled by this option, it’s not terribly practical, due to the recovery time and all that jazz. Also, if I’m going to do it, I might as well do both knees at once (but that will mean going through the whole x-ray/MRI process on my right knee as well). It’s also fairly expensive, and while insurance will likely pick up quite a bit of it, our insurance sucks ass and it will be quite the fight to get them to pay on time.
Option 3: Honestly, this is where I tuned out a bit because he said “injection” and my brain just refuses to even go there. Apparently, there is a procedure wherein they take some fat from your body and do some voodoo to it and inject it into the knee. Errrrr, um. No. It’s not covered by insurance and isn’t a long-term solution anyway.
So… physical therapy it is! The doctor thinks that some PT to work on getting my leg muscles to do what they’re supposed to do and some weight loss (WORKING ON IT, SHEESH) will help this problem of mine be more manageable. Because it’s not exactly going away.
Sigh.
So here we are at Zero. Starting from scratch, essentially, since I haven’t been allowed to run for nearly four months. It’s daunting, the thought of how much work I will have to do to reach these goals I’ve set for myself. Hell, the amount of work I will need to do to simply get withing SIGHT of the goals is a little overwhelming when I think about it.
I won’t think about it.
I will set tiny goals.
Tiny Goal #1: Go to physical therapy.
Tiny Goal #2: Continue with cardio training on the elliptical and spin bike.
Tiny Goal #3: [depending on PT restrictions] more weight training
Tiny Goal #4: Continue and improve eating habits. I’m not doing too badly at the moment but there is room for improvement.
Tiny Goal #5: End-of-May 5K.
The Good Doctor and I will run a 5K with you at the end of May. Name the time and place!
I was thinking about the Hillsborough Hop but that sells out in seconds and might be more of a “race” than I want. I really want to do a “Slow People 5K” where the average time is like, 41 minutes, haha. I’ll start looking around and see what I can find.