Introduction and Knee issues

Hi everyone! I decided to create this blog to keep all of my family and friends up to date with my medical information so that there is one central place for people to check up on me. This first post is going to be lengthy, though I might split it up into multiple sections to make it easier to read.

First off, a little about me for those of you who do not know me that well. I am 19 years old and live in a suburb of Chicago. I have one older brother (just turned 23) who is in the United States Army. I am engaged to a wonderful man named Joseph and am extremely excited to be beginning our life together.

Now on to my medical journey

I was a relatively healthy child from birth and there was nothing to suggest that I would have any health problems. I was lactose intolerant as a baby, which caused a lot of issues when I was very small, but fortunately I have outgrown that! I also have had moderate to severe environmental allergies, especially fall allergies, for as long as I can remember. I am allergic to various pollens, dusts, molds, trees, and weeds. These were never controlled very well with any of the number of medications that we tried but they were nothing too awful. As I started to get older, around 8 or 9 I think, I got reoccurring sinus infections (about 2-4 a year), but my dad gets some also so we thought nothing of it. Around 12 or so these infections also started to be accompanied by ear infections and upper respiratory infections. I have also ground my teeth at night since I was very young. I fractured and dislocated my wrist at 7 and severely sprained my right ankle and foot at 6 as well.

When I entered high school things started to go downhill for me with my health. I went to our family physician after I began to develop headaches and knee pain. He diagnosed me as having TMD, which is a disorder of the jaw in which I grind my teeth and it causes jaw pain, ear pain, headaches, and various other things. He said that this was the cause of my headaches and there was nothing else wrong there. I was prescribed some muscle relaxers and told to get an over the counter mouth guard at night. This did help with the jaw pain, but I could not find a mouth guard that I liked and was comfortable to sleep in. I have only recently gotten a mouth guard made by my dentist, which was a fantastic decision. This eliminates the jaw pain I had when chewing as well as the ear ache and jaw soreness in the morning. This diagnosis, however, did not solve the problem of my severe headaches. This physician also said my knee pains were just growing pains and tendonitis. We accepted this as my brother also had tendonitis.

After a number of visits with this doctor he finally told my mother that I was just seeking attention and that I was making up my severe headaches and she should just tell me to tough it up. Obviously, this did not go over very well so we found a new family physician. This lady said she did not know what was wrong, but she referred me to an orthopedic surgeon for the left knee pain and an otolaryngologist (ENT) to see if the headaches were connected to my sinus issues.

I’ll start with the knee issues

 As I said, my brother had tendonitis during high school so we figured it was probably that, but since I was so uncomfortable we decided to get it checked out. My dad also has a very rare disease (that I can’t remember the name of) in one of his knees that causes problems with the cartilage and fluid in the knees so we wanted to make sure it was not that, even though that is not hereditary. We found an orthopedic surgeon, who turned out to be the same one who set my wrist when I broke it at 7 years old. He is absolutely fantastic and has since gone on to do surgery on my dad’s wrist, elbow, and shoulder, both of my mom’s knees, and my brother's shoulder. He ordered an MRI to check on the cartilage and tendons in my left knee as well as a set of x-rays. The MRI showed that my meniscus, which is a crescent shaped piece of cartilage in each knee, was severely torn and was catching every time my knee bent. This is what would cause the intense pain accompanied by a popping noise when I bent my knee or stood on it for too long. This would require a minimally invasive arthoscopic surgery to fix. In addition to this we found a tumor behind my knee.

I was sent to Rush University to check on the tumor. The doctor there diagnosed it as a benign tumor that did not need any type of intervention besides monitoring. In the mean time I managed to flip my kneecap over when I stood up, which was extremely painful! This landed me in a knee immobilizer and on crutches. My surgery to fix the meniscus was scheduled for October of 2009. The surgery went well and he was able to clean out all of the pieces that had torn and remove an extra shelf of cartilage that had no purpose and was probably contributing to the catching feeling when I bent my knee. This was all done through three small holes around my knee that all took only one stitch each to close and the scars can barely be seen now. My pain was easily controlled with oral medications and a pump that he had put into my knee that I could inject medicine directly into my knee for the first three days, and I was encouraged to use the knee as much as possible. I had extreme nausea and vomiting from the anesthesia for the first day or so: I got that one from my mother!

The recovery was not as smooth as we would have liked, however… Because so much was removed the tendon that runs through your knee, the ACL, was like a stretched out rubber band. This would allow my knee to hyper extend, or bend backwards, which the knee joint is not designed to do. This caused pain and weakness each time it did this and slowed down the healing process from the surgery. In addition the physical therapist I had had me do squats just a few weeks after surgery which is a very bad idea and caused a set back in my recovery. Perhaps the largest issue I had was that I had been in an immobilizer, which does just what it sounds like by use of a brace that extends the length of halfway up the thigh to half way down the calf and has 2 metal bars along the sides and one down the back so that the knee cannot bend, for about 5 weeks. This caused my muscles to atrophy significantly. I had to relearn how to do stairs and had to gain strength back. This also had caused my right knee and hip to become sore because I was over compensating for not being able to use the left. Overall, with the help of a custom brace that did not allow my knee to hyperextend and at home exercises I was able to regain strength in the leg and I no longer have ANY problems with my knees :)

I had to get yearly x-rays every year to monitor the benign tumor behind my left knee and make sure it did not grow. Luckily it stayed the same and did not grow or change shape at all! I can now go about every three years to monitor the tumor, although it probably will never change or give me any problems!

Wow this is already really long so I will end it here and continue my story in the next post!