Category: doctor

That Time of Year

Well I’m not at all surprised that with all that traveling we just did that I got a cold! Thankfully I don’t think it’s the flu (I never had a fever) but I felt pretty crappy last week and basically all weekend. 🙁

I was home Thursday and Friday and either on the couch or in bed. Drinking gallons of theraflu, emergenC, taking ColdEze and elderberry cough drops. Yuck! The good news is that I got to catch up on some TV shows snuggling with the fur babies on the couch.

I watched Pandemic on Netflix (very good) and started Locke and Key (also pretty good, with a twist of fantasy and mild horror). And I got caught up on my favorite TV shows I’m behind on (Schitt’s Creek, Grey’s Anatomy, and SVU). Lots of napping. Lots of laziness.

I was sick for Valentine’s Day. Bummer. But Michael brought home pho (my favorite when I have a cold) and some keto ice cream!

Not really doing keto right now while I’m sick but trying to do low carb at the very least. The pho hit the spot! The ice cream was a little weird in texture but I’ll try it again. 🙂

Logan got me a super sweet card:

Michael also got some keto bread at Costco!

Saturday night I had a grilled ham and cheese sandwich on the bread. It was pretty decent. It itched the craving for a sandwich! The bread was pretty good. The first half was good but the second half got a little soggy and the bread started falling apart a bit. Maybe using the keto bread for just grilled cheese, no ham, would be better.

Sunday morning I had eggs and avocado toast with the keto bread. The keto bread was great as toast!

Sunday I also went to the doctor. I was feeling a lot worse and it was turning into a sinus infection. Antibiotics and prednisone for a few days. BOO. My surgery last year definitely fixed my issues, though. Instead of 7 or 8 sinus infections a year, one is definitely an improvement!

Also, once I’m feeling better I need to get back to weight lifting. I notice that when that falls off I start having issues with my back and stuff. My SI joint has been bugging me for weeks and my hip and back feel terrible. Probably because all I’ve done for a month is cardio (swimming, running, hiking etc). I need to get back to strength training asap!

As for losing weight…I managed to NOT gain any weight in Hawaii! Yay! I did a mostly on plan diet (low carb, not necessarily keto) with splurges every day (like rice with my poke and then birthday cake) but I didn’t go crazy and we were super active. So that was nice. I did manage to gain 2 pounds in LA, of course. LOL How does that happen?!? Who even knows. But as soon as this cold is over with I am back to the diet, back to the gym!

I started doing Keto last February 1st and have done it in fits and starts, which isn’t ideal and not effective. Stuff kept popping up (my surgery, the stress of buying a house and moving and then the holidays) so I basically kept gaining and losing THE SAME 10 pounds since last year. I am really hoping I can do better this year.

Knee

I’ve been dealing with a knee issue since December. I had tendinitis in my right knee. I think it was from one of the knee machines at the gym (which I quit using). I was going to PT and haven’t been seeing any improvements. I saw Ortho in June and got an MRI, which of course was inconclusive.

The diagnosis is “mild chondromalacia of joint and quadriceps tendinitis”. But honestly my Ortho Doc is baffled.

I decided to spend the summer going to PT and trying to see what happens. There was a lot going on with moving, selling our house, etc. PT wasn’t really helping, though and a lot of the exercises I was trying to do was making it WORSE. It was SO frustrating! And my physical therapist was frustrated too!

I recently started doing acupuncture and was actually seeing some differences–which was weird because all the times I’ve ever tried acupuncture, I never really saw any results. But this time, it seemed to help. It gave me a few weeks of relief! Then my benefits ran out. My physical therapist plead my case to my doctor for a referral so I could keep going and that finally got approved! So in a few weeks I’ll go back to acupuncture and see if that helps.

Which brings me to this week. It’s been two weeks since I’ve been to acupuncture and this week my knee pain flared up again. I had a follow-up appointment with my Ortho doc Thursday and we chatted. He gave me two options–the cortisone shot and “dry needling“.

He said that the dry needling is different than acupuncture and can be more painful. He said he’d want me to take a few days off to rest after that but with the cortisone shot, I would be ok to go to work and move around and stuff (I just couldn’t work out for two days).

Since he’s not 100% sure on what my knee issue is because the MRI didn’t really show much, he said the cortisone shot was the best bet for now to see if it would just “reset” my body. Sometimes you need to reset the pain centers and then your body can heal. I had the same issue after my ankle surgery 15+ years ago and ended up getting a cortisone shot in my ankle (it was horribly painful!!!!) and then within a week my pain was gone and I had no more issues. I know some people need to have multiple injections, but I’m hoping I’m a one shot and done person. (Crossing fingers!)

So he thinks that I have fluid and inflammation in that area at the top of my kneecap (see picture above with the arrow). The pain is at the top of the kneecap, where it meets my quad. Stretching doesn’t help. Bending my knee hurts. Stairs hurt. It’s a very odd injury.

He sprayed my leg and knee with this stuff and then gave me the injection. Unlike with my ankle shot, it was one shot and it wasn’t painful at all. Then I went to work. I was stiff and a little sore but I was able to walk and didn’t feel miserable or anything.

It will take 7 days or so to see if the shot did anything. Right now it’s a guessing game. The naturopath doctor I saw suggested I try PRP therapy. I asked my Ortho Doc about it and he’s a HUGE fan. As a sports medicine doctor he thinks it’s a great thing and wishes that HMO’s would try it. It’s still controversial and they aren’t quite sure how or why it works for some people. But he raved about it and said if I could “afford it” (I can’t) I should try it. Time will tell. Right now I’m doing what insurance covers–the cortisone shot and acupuncture each week.