I got a second opinion - ("You have the knees of a 20 year old!")

First of all, can I tell you how TOTALLY CRAZY it is that two doctors can look at the exact same data and come up with completely opposite conclusions? My head is just spinning and I don't even know where to start!

Yesterday, I went to the Hershey Bone and Joint Institute to get a second opinion regarding my knee pain. As usual, I came armed with all of my info and was ready to take notes!



The knee saga I have gone through over the past 2 years is too long to recap here in it's entirety, but I can quickly tell you my original doctor/surgeon at OIP told me I have minimal arthritis and should get a fluid injection and physical therapy to remedy my problem. 


I really wanted to check the first box, but made myself be truthful!


My main questions for my new doctor were:

1. Is my arthritis significant enough to cause my pain and weakness?

2. If not, is there something else contributing to my symptoms?

3. Should I get the injection?

I was armed with X-rays and an MRI, as well as all of the surgical notes from OIP. I gave my new doctor a lot to look at. Also, one of his med students came in first, and I pretty much told him the whole knee saga story, which he then relayed to the doctor before he came to see me. Both the med student and the doctor had me move my knee, touched it, manipulated it, and did all that jazz.


My actual images!

I felt like Hershey gave me a very comprehensive appointment. On the other hand, when I was at OIP last month, my doctor simply had me bend my leg for him. Okay, I can't think about that or I will get angry. Let me get back on track...

So after reviewing all the images, surgical notes, and doing an extensive examination of my legs, Dr. Dhawan told me the following information:


"Structurally, your knees look perfect."

"You have the knees of a 20 year old."

"I wish I had your knees."

"You do not have arthritis. There is very minimal wear on the cartilage."

"There is nothing wrong with your knee."


I am sure you can imagine how shocked I was! If you remember, this is what my doctor at OIP told me a little over a month ago...


WTF? HOW CAN THEIR FINDINGS BE SO DIFFERENT?
ALWAYS GET A SECOND OPINION, PEOPLE!


I asked Dr. Dhawan point blank: "How can two different doctors tell me two completely different things?"

Dr. Dhawan stressed that he wasn't throwing anyone under the bus, but with the data he had (he said he's very DATA DRIVEN), there is nothing to suggest there is anything wrong with my knee other than I am feeling pain. He even showed my the final MRI findings:


The MRI showed NOTHING "wrong" with my knee. 
Everything read "unremarkable".

So this is good news and bad news, right? The good news is THERE IS NOTHING WRONG AND I HAVE THE KNEES OF A 20 YEAR OLD!!! The bad news (other than that OIP SUCKS and I apparently had unnecessary surgery last year) is that I still have knee pain.

Dr. Dhawan said I need to think of my knee pain the way we think about a headache. He said most of the time a headache is just a headache. There's no brain tumor or cancer causing the ailment, it is just a headache. We power on, we take pain relievers, and go about our days.

So like a headache pain, I am experiencing pain, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with my knee. Physical activity is not going to harm my knee because structurally there ISN'T anything wrong with it. I need to power on and manage the pain with pain relievers or other methods. He stressed that activity will probably make it feel better, and I agreed that it's on rest days it hurts the worst.

As you can imagine, my head is spinning. For the past two years, I have been operating under the assumption that activity was going to make whatever is wrong with my knee worse and that I should limit activity to help it heal. That's not the case. I have pain and that is all.

He did not recommend getting surgery on injections at this time.

I couldn't wait to call Paul and my mom and tell them the good news. (I am considering this VERY good news!) "I have the knees of a 20 year old and the boobs of a 12 year old!" I told them. 

I guess I need to go research pain. I did grab some over the counter pain relievers on my way home, so that is a good place to start. I never ever take those because I didn't want to mask my pain and then injure myself further. It looks like masking the pain is what I need to do at this point, though.

It is just almost unfathomable to me that I could go out right now and do hill repeats and not harm my knee at all. That doesn't mean it won't feel sore after. But it does mean that I can workout at whatever level I can tolerate and not worry about doing harm to my knees.

SO MUCH TO DIGEST!!!!!!!!

I just can't believe my OIP doctor insinuated that my knees were so bad. Dr. Dhawan went over the MRI report with me and carefully looked at the images. "Unremarkable MRI examination of the knee," it read.

Having an unremarkable knee is a good thing. I just don't understand how my first doctor could tell me I have arthritis and I don't have a "normal knee" when clearly that is not the case!!!

Can you think of other pain management techniques I can do besides ice and over the counter pain relievers?

Have you or someone you love ever gotten different diagnosis from different doctors?