Paul and I went to our friendly orthopedic doctor this morning to get the results of the MRI on my left knee and X Rays of both of my knees. His office requested that I have the MRI and X Rays and bring the films to the office.
Since the symptoms mimicked a torn miniscus that I had in my right knee in 2001, and I had saved the films from that, plus my current ones, I brought both with me, thinking he'd like to see both.
He didn't look at any of the films.
He put the X Rays up and said, I don't need to look at your MRI's to tell you what you have - you have chronic pseudogout, or CPPD, and arthritis in both knees. There is no cure, but there is treatment. He said my primary care doctor was doing the right thing by having me take a twice-daily NSAID pill. I could have cortisone shots if I wanted. I said that I didn't need them, that I was feeling much better with the rest and medication. He said I could go back to Curves as long as I didn't use any of the high impact machines. Fine with me.
I googled pseudogout and this is the definition:
Pseudogout is a type of inflammation of joints (arthritis) that is caused by deposits of crystals called calcium pyrosphosphate in and around the joints. It is a myth that eating a lot of calcium provoke development of pseudogout. Its cause is unknown but it can be inherited. (I think Aunt Ella had it.) It self-resolves in time with rest and medication.
That's all folks... for now.
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