The Body's Shock Absorber

It's often been said that the knees are the body's shock absorbers. If that's the case, it seems that one of my shock absorbers is on the fritz. It's always been a little off, but, just like you do with your car, you ignore it or write it off as a quirk and adjust to it.

That works, until something happens to aggravate that "quirk". I don't know what did it, if it was the yard work I did to get ready for the Father's Day BBQ at my house, if it was kneeling on the floor to play with the dog or if it was just a simple misstep, but all of the sudden, man it hurts.

So, now I get to pay a visit to my orthopedic surgeon. Same guy that did my shoulder a few years a go. Back then, he told me at the time that my knee would probably need some work at some point, but that it didn't really need anything at the time. Well, this time, I'm sure it needs something. So I go see my doc next week. I'm sure an MRI will shortly follow.

But here's the dilemma. If the MRI shows something (and I'm guessing it will), and if my experience with my shoulder is any indication, the conversation next week (or post-MRI) will likely end with some options. Option 1 would be to get a cortisone shot in the knee (if you've never had a cortisone shot, it's not exactly a pleasant experience) and do six months of physical therapy and see if that works. Option 2 would be to schedule surgery and just get it over with.

So, what do you do? Get the shot, do the physical therapy and hope you can stave off the surgeon's scalpel for a while or just have them knock you out and fix the damn thing as soon as possible?

That's the thing, I just don't know. On the one hand, I can understand the approach of the cortisone shot and physical therapy. The hope being that you can make the joint strong enough on it's own that you don't need surgery right away. But if the surgery is inevitable, why wouldn't you just do it right away and get it over with?

Of course, this is all assuming that there's nothing terribly wrong with my knee. If something has gone horribly awry, I'm sure surgery is going to be the top option, but I don't really feel like something is horribly wrong, it just hurts. I guess we'll find out next week.

It's the not knowing what's wrong that kills me...