Three days of bed rest (so far) is driving me crazy. I’ve been having trouble with my knee for several months. At first, I didn’t know what it was. All I knew was that Audrey’s tail would catch me in the back of the knee, and I would crumple in pain. Jennie kept telling me what a wuss I was.
When I had physical therapy for my back, my therapist led me to believe it was a Baker’s cyst. I actually thought it was reducing with the exercise I was getting in my therapy sessions, but apparently I was mistaken.
After it seemed to be growing again, and getting painful when I tried to work out, I finally went to see my doctor about it. He referred me to an orthopedic knee specialist, who sent me for an MRI. The MRI gave me quite a scare when I saw that the “Baker’s cyst” was only the largest of over a dozen growths along the back of my knee. When the orthopedist referred me to an orthopedic oncologist, I really panicked. I spent three days convinced that I had cancer and was going to die. Strangely, I was relieved when I finally had my appointment and Dr. Hugate told me that it didn’t look like cancer after all, but instead appeared to be a mild form of neurofibromatosis. I mean, it’s not a walk in the park, but it’s certainly a preferrable alternative to cancer!
One of the strange parts of this is that neurofibromatosis is a genetic disease, usually hereditary, but neither of my parents has it. That makes me, as Jennie is so fond of pointing out now, a mutant! At any rate, I had the large neurofibroma removed on Thursday, and I’m supposed to stay pretty much off my feet and keep my leg elevated most of the time. I’m allowed to be up and put weight on it now, but it’s pretty weak, so I’m still spending most of my time on the couch. I’m hoping I get word from Dr. Hugate tomorrow on the pathology report, to know whether it’s type I or type II NF. There’s still a slim possibility that it’s something else entirely, but I’m no longer losing any sleep over it. Of course, the Percocet’s good for that, too…
Jennie’s been awesome through all of this. I know she’s been under a lot of pressure, both with the scare of thinking it could be cancer, to getting up all through the night to check on me and get me my pills. I know it sounds a little melodramatic now, because it’s not cancer after all, but facing your own mortality before your 30th birthday is really scary. I have taken a lot of things in my life for granted, including Jennie, and I hope I remember how special she is now that I’m putting this behind me.