11-Month Update -- Setback

I suffered my first real setback about 2-3 weeks ago. It might be a reoccurrence of an earlier problem. There’s a sharp twinge of pain on the inside part of my knee, right where the knee forms a “V” when it bends. I think this is what doctors call, “the joint line.” The pain appears to be below the patella, suggesting it’s unrelated to the ACI surgery (at least that’s what I hope). My symptoms are consistent with a medial meniscus tear. (I earned my M.D. at Google University). The 6-month MRI suggested I tore the posterior horn of my medial meniscus, which, I learned, is the most common place to tear cartilage. Turgeon thought the actual MRI pictures were inconclusive, and the 2nd MRI report didn’t note the meniscus tear. Then again, the MRI guys also thought they were looking for a torn ACL…

The pain prevented me from doing my knee exercises for a few weeks; the rehab kept aggravating the pain. That’s troubling. But what’s worse is that the pain started flaring up during normal activities. This is the first time I’ve ever experienced daily knee pain, and I’m seriously concerned. I never had constant pain before my surgery, and I’m worried that the surgery made my knee worse. The doubts about my decision to undergo ACI – the ones I tried to bury months ago – have re-emerged. I now think about my knee pretty much every time I walk or climb stairs. Over the past 2-3 days, the pain has disappeared, and I recently did some shuttle leg press with minimal bend and weight with no ill after-effects. Hopefully the pain is unrelated to the ACI repairs, hopefully the pain doesn’t suggest anything serious, but if it’s a meniscus tear, hopefully it can be fixed rather easily, or as easy as arthroscopic surgery can be. That’s a lot of hoping…

My next doctor’s appointment is this week. Hopefully (there’s that word again) I’ll get some insight into the cause of my knee pain, as well as a possible solution. I already scheduled an appointment with another ACI doctor for the following week. I want a second set of eyes to examine my knee, not just about the possible meniscus tear, but also to evaluate my progress from the ACI surgery.

The possible meniscus tear poses a new dilemma. I had wanted the OS to check out the status of my cloned cartilage and “clean up” any overgrowth at the same time he removed my screws, and I had planned on waiting until next year to have the screws removed. However, if I tore my meniscus I’ll probably need to get scoped fairly soon, which means I have to decide now whether to get the screws removed, too. Frankly, I don’t think I have a choice. I don’t want to undergo two separate surgeries and two separate recovery periods. I want to handle my rehabs at the same time, if possible, even if it’s earlier than I had planned. This will jack with stuff I had planned to do in 2010.

Anyway, I should have some interesting details to share next week after my two doctor’s visits.

Ok, because this latest posting is a bit morose, I decided to share my adventures dressing up as Santa 5 years ago. This story was re-worked from the original email I sent to some buddies. Enjoy.

I made 4 Santa visits. The first 3 stops were to little kids: 1 ½ - 3 years old. Those were fun trips, even the visit to the kid who was scared sh*tless of Santa. I read a few Xmas stories, gave them some gifts, and told corny North Pole jokes. Good times.

The last stop was a different story: a 7 yr-old boy and his 10-yr old sister. When I saw their ages on my checklist, I assumed the older sister no longer believed in Santa, but was just playing along so she didn’t ruin it for her brother. As it was, I was skeptical that the 7-yr old (first grader) still believed in Santa. Well, those were 15 of Santa’s most uncomfortable minutes.

I first made a couple of “I’m checking my naughty/nice list” jokes and then gave the kids the gifts their parents stashed outside. After they opened them, dead silence. Crickets chirping. I had no idea what to do. At one point, I almost asked their parents, “How ‘bout throwing Santa a bone here….” The kids didn’t seem real interested in listening to Xmas stories, and I’m not sure what the rules say about letting a 10-yr old girl sit on my lap. So I started asking them some dorky questions about school and what they like to do, the kind of questions aunts and uncles ask during family reunions. It turns out the boy is artsy. He bragged about the pot he made in art class and the poems he’s writing in English class. I almost asked if he painted the pot fuchsia. I immediately checked Santa’s rules for helping little kids come out of the closet. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Dealing with the daughter was equally nerve-racking. Very nice girl, but she was exceptionally quiet. I struggled to use her Hillary Duff CD gift as a conversation bridge. I even heard myself say, “Santa likes Hillary Duff, too. She’s a fine entertainer.” I was using Kramer’s “Mr. Movie Phone” voice, the episode in which he finally told the caller, “why don’t you just me the name of the movie…” Painful moments.

After a few pictures with Santa by the Xmas tree, I asked the kids if there’s anything else they wanted to ask Santa. The boy said, “You’re not the real Santa, are you? You’re just one of his helpers dressed up like Santa.” Totally out of the blue. Dad was videotaping the whole episode. I’m sure in a few years when they show that tape at their family reunion, some drunk cousin is gonna bust out, “Check out the look on Santa’s face!!” I was completely frozen. I desperately looked at the mom for some help, the second time that night I wanted the parents to throw Santa a bone. Thankfully, the mom said, “Santa, Brandon knows there are many Santa helpers.” So I picked up that train of thought and told the kids, “Yes. Santa’s really busy at the North Pole right now. There’s just no way he can check on ALL the kids in the world, so he asks helpers like me to visit certain kids to see if they’ve been naughty or nice. And after my visit here, I can safely report back that Brandon and Megan are nice kids, deserving of really neat gifts.” I think that answer helped avert disaster. If the kids didn’t buy it, I was ready to pull of my fake beard and say, “Look, kids. I’m just a gov’t worker, trying to make the world a better place.”