I Took my Knee to the Doc

I decided that it was about time to take my right knee to see the Doctor again. I took it to see a Doc in Napier in October 2006 because it had been giving me trouble for quite a while and I wanted to make sure that cycling wasn't going to do it any harm. He did all sorts of things to the knee and said that it was fine and that cycling would strengthen the muscles and would be positively beneficial. When I asked how he could tell he said that if it hadn't been then after what he'd just done to me he'd be scraping me off the ceiling. Now that's the sort of explanation I can understand.

It has given me trouble on and off ever since and I mentioned it to several Doctors who have all said the same thing adding that the sporadic nature of the pain could mean a loose piece of cartilage which would probably one day have to be removed. Anyway since last summer the knee has been swollen and it has been giving me quite a lot of trouble recently. Sometimes it makes me wake up in the night with jabs of pain when I fail to turn my lower leg when I turn my body. Now it's started to ache at night vas well as during the day.

So last night I made an appointment and saw a Doc at 0845 this morning. 'Everything' he said 'to do with the cartilage and so on is fine. You probably have arthritis.' Anyway I went off to Hawkes Bay Radiology and had an X-ray. This afternoon the Specialist will prepare a report and the Doc will get it tomorrow morning.

Health service is fast when you are paying for it directly and as you have the treatment. For the most part one does pay for non-accident health care in New Zealand although no-one, whether visitor or resident, pays for accident care.

Arthritis could be a bummer. Why? Because it could interfere with my croquet! Ah well.

I thought this was a pretty boring posting so I though I would treat you to an added photo.