Progress Update: Week 5, Here I Come

It’s been a little over a week and a half since I posted about the state of my knees. There’s a reason for that. (Hint: It’s not because they’re doing so amazingly awesome I have nothing left to write about.) Nope, I just don’t feel like dealing with them. I’m sick of having bad knees. I’m sick of sitting around all weekend instead of going for a hike or shopping or cleaning my entire apartment from top to bottom. I’m sick of sitting on the counter to make dinner instead of standing over the stove like one of those normal humans. I’m also sick of making The Man—and my mother, who flew down from New England yesterday—box the entire place up in preparation for our move. Oh, and on Saturday, I’m going to be tired of sitting around while our volunteer movers cart away heavy loads my junk. Sigh.

But, alas, this is a blog about my knee pain and (cross your fingers, will ya?) recovery. Plus, I don’t want to kick myself next time I get PRP and start getting all neurotic about my recovery and whether I’m on schedule or whether I’m behind and thus doomed to gimpdome. I need these entries to look back on, which is why, without further stalling hesitation, I’m giving an update:

As of this Friday, it’s been five weeks since I got my latest round of PRP. I’m impressed that this time I haven’t been counting off the weeks like a six-year-old anticipating Christmas. The good news is that the leftover pain from the injections went away a couple weeks ago. The bad news is that my knee doesn’t feel any different than it did pre-PRP. Oh, and it doesn’t feel any better than my PRP-free knee.

I’m trying to make myself feel better about the glaring lack of progress by reminding myself that I didn’t feel a big difference until week seven last time. So there’s still hope. And I haven’t been to the gym to strengthen my shriveling leg muscles since PRP. Shame, shame, shame on me. Even with out PRP, my knees feel better when I’m consistently working out.

Future Tracey, here’s what you need to know about your knee at this very moment in time:

• Your Baker’s cysts (cysts behind the knee that fill up thanks to extra fluid produced by inflammation in the joint) are hurting, especially in the PRP knee. The added cushioning caused by the injections has gone down, but they’re still achy on a daily basis.
• Your knee doesn’t feel great, but it doesn’t feel horrible either. Walking the piddly amount you do each day doesn’t inflame your knee (yay!), but standing is another story—you’re still tired after a few minutes.
• But you still haven’t tried walking any distance—say, a couple blocks—to see how your knee handles it. Perhaps that’s what post-Thanksgiving shopping is for.
• Last weekend, while visiting pals in Philly, you stayed on the second floor of a row home and actually felt OK mounting and descending the steps at least five times. Go you.
• Your PRP isn’t cracking as much as your PRP-free knee, which must be a good thing. Speaking of which, when was the last time you popped-and-cracked your PRP knee…?
• You’re not exercising. Tsk. Tsk.
• Your hamstrings have been really tight lately. Maybe it’s that no exercising thing. Just sayin’…

If you live with chronic pain, whether or not you deal with bad knees, do you ever wish you could have a day off? Am I just being lazy, or do you get tired dealing with and talking about your pain, too? And if you happen to have joint pain—speak up!