So, this was the moment of truth. I was still on leave from my work and I finally was going to see Dr. Frush. He was going to read my MRI scan and tell me if I needed surgery or not. I swore that I did! He and Jen came in to see me and he sat next to me. He paused for a moment and my heart was in my throat, he said, “No surgery yet.” He poked around at my knee and I told him that it still hurt everywhere he poked.
He had Jen pull up my MRI on the computer and explained it to me. On the screen, I could see what I call a “Pac-Man” chunk taken out of my MCL. I was surprised to see that because my MCL has not hurt as much as the outer portion of my knee. He pointed out what looked like fuzzy static This was exactly where my pain was. That was cartilage damage.
I told him that the pain is a constant throbbing. Sometimes (very rarely) it will change into a lower instance (not such a fast throb) but it is there. It hasn’t gone away since I was injured. This was over three months ago. As I explained this constant pain to him he got a thoughtful look on his face and told me that I would get a Cortisone shot today.
When I heard the words, “Cortisone shot,” I immediately thought of The movie Varsity Blues. I was in high school when this movie came out and I remember a player was injured and he got a Cortisone shot in his knee so he was able to play through the injury and ended up completely screwing his knee up.
This shot must be the “numb-all” that I was looking for! If a football player could play through injury after getting this shot, I was golden and excited! Maybe now the pain would stop! Jen sprayed my knee with numbing spray as Dr. Frush injected me.
The above picture was a screenshot I took of the “My hero” video by the Foo Fighters. It has clips of the movie in it and this was the exact scene I saw in my head when Dr. Frush said, “Cortisone shot.” He didn’t shoot me at the bottom of my knee is this kid is being shot, but rather, on the outside near the top where it has been hurting so badly.
I absolutely LOVE this song, I used to play the song in class when I used to teach the novel, The Outsiders. I had this really cool extension activity about “heroes” and I got to hear that song five times the day I taught that lesson. One year the schedule changed and I got to hear it seven times. I can’t hear this song without thinking of teaching English, Varsity Blues, and Cortisone shots.
Well, as it turns out, the Cortisone is not a magic “numb-all” for me and the pain returned the next day. I started thinking more about the fact that Dr. Frush used the qualifier “Yet.” Because the Cortisone didn’t work at all for me, does this mean I’m going to need surgery?! I go back to see him again in January. He extended my prescription for physical therapy so I will see how my knee does until I see him again.