The Knee Puzzles

SUMMARY: It's so much better. Why?

My knee is now not swollen even worth mentioning. I think there's just a little puffiness in one place, but this is the first time in two full months that it hasn't been so obviously large that one could tell even through my jeans. And the pain level is absolutely minimal; I said a "3" on 1 to 10 scale last Tuesday, but mostly now it's probably around a 1. Except when I try to kneel. Then I know it's not a normal knee.

But I haven't been doing ANYthing with it--almost no work with the dogs in the yard, virtually no walking, not even ANY of the exercises from physical therapy--which I need to get back to.

This is amazing. Just as I remain baffled as to why it got suddenly worse in April (and then quickly better) and then suddenly worse again mid-September, I am baffled as to why a week at Scottsdale should spur a rapid recovery.

And NOW I have surgery tentatively scheduled for the Wednesday after Thanksgiving. Still have to meet with the doc who'll do the work and also go in for a pre-op physical exam. I'm of many minds about this:

• "If it's better now, maybe I don't need the surgery."
• "If it's going to act up every few months and make it impossible for me to walk, I definitely need the surgery."
• "If the 'unusual appearing linear vague signal abnormality in the distal femoral metadisaphysis region, without a typical appearance for a fracture' (read: "some abnormality to bones in knee") also revealed by the MRI is what's really causing the problem, meniscus surgery won't fix the problem. But there might be no way to know without doing it."