I had an appointment on Friday with Dr. Moore. I was told that he works closely with Dr. Frush but he is a non surgical sports medicine doctor. My knee was kind of hurting when I saw him. When he came in, I noticed he was really tall and he spoke freely with my mom and me both. He pressed my knee in all the spots where it hurt and he talked about a few options to help it to feel better.
He talked about another Cortisone shot to help and if that didn’t work to do a procedure called Tenex. If that didn’t work either, he talked about a third procedure but that is not covered by insurance. He told me it would be about $1000. I don’t have $1000 for a procedure so I’m hoping that the first two options work out. He pulled up the images of my ultrasound and took a look at them.
He decided that we would do a Cortisone shot that day, see how it does, make a return appointment in about four weeks, and then see what we’ll do from there. The nurse came back in to get things ready for the Cortisone shot. I had two previous Cortisone shots from Dr. Frush with one not making my knee feel better before surgery and one making my knee feel a little better after surgery.
After the nurse readied the needle for the shot, she left and brought back in the ultrasound machine. Dr. Moore came back in and we kind of played musical chairs where to situate me in the room so this could work. Dr. Moore is a couple of years younger than me so when he put my chair, in the corner, facing it, he laughed at my Blair Witch Project reference.
After all of equipment was set up, I commented that this is a little bit more involved of a Cortisone shot than the ones I received from Dr. Frush. The nurse sprayed numbing solution on the medial side of my knee and then glopped a whole bunch of ointment on for the ultrasound machine. Dr. Moore pushed the ultrasound wand onto my knee and looked at the monitor that was over my shoulder. My mom said that it looked like the ocean and I think those scans look more like a pork loin.
Dr. Moore put the needle in my knee and looked at the monitor. He moved the needle around a bunch while it was inside my knee. I had a needle moving around in my knee. That should hurt. But, it didn’t because it was numbed. After he found a good spot, he injected the Cortisone into my knee.
He asked how my knee felt and at that moment it felt good. It felt completely numb. He told me we may have found the spot where it would do the most good for my knee but told me to make a return appointment for four weeks to see. I left, and my return appointment is set for November 10th. As my mom and I were driving home, my knee started to hurt.
I can’t believe that it has been over a year since my knee was injured and it still hurts! I told Dr. Moore that I told Dr. Frush that he could cut my leg off but Dr. Moore agreed with him that that was not a good idea. Since my latest Cortisone shot, my knee moves from a dull ache too a sharp, stabbing pain. I know that is not normal but I hope to get some more answers at my next appointment.
Dr. Moore said the Tenex is where they make a small incision to put a needle in and then he said something about scraping my tendon and then I kind of stopped listening. That sounded gross! But if it’s going to help, I’m not going to argue. I just hope this procedure works so I don’t have to do the procedure that is not covered by insurance.