Quick update . . .

I just got back from the follow-up at the original ortho (this is Steadman Hawkins over in DTC). Everything in the last voice message and quick convo I had with a scheduing person led me to believe that they were just going to have me see the PA. That message basically said there was no tear and they could discuss PT and possibly injections and seemed like that was that. But I ended up actually seeing the surgeon and having a pretty good conversation.

Told him the MRI results they relayed actually left me with more questions than answers based on my past experiences and what this still felt like. He kind of laughed and said, like me, he was half-expecting to see a tear of some kind based on my symptoms and description. The swelling has come down quite a bit with the icing I have been doing and the knee was feeling incrementally "better" in some ways, but I still have that meniscus-tear-like feeling that goes in and out--seemingly less often but still painful. He brought up the MRI and we walked through it and I discussed what was still going on and what aggravated it. Asked if it's possible that the MRI could be missing something.

He said it's possible . . . although typically the size and severity where it's causing people issues is usually pretty reliably shown--but not 100%. Ran through a few more tests on the knee. He said he'd like to give it a few more weeks to see how it it goes and if it keeps improving. Said to give it another week of taking it a bit easy and icing but then to start testing it out a bit more with increased activity and see how things go. If the pain and issues aren't going away, he said it may very well be necessary to scope it and have a look and see if there's anything there that can be addressed that just isn't making itself known on the imaging.

So, that seems reasonable to me and I'll give that a fair shot. If that doesn't bear fruit . . . I have a number of great suggestions to wade through for a second opinion. I want to thank you all for the posts and PM's. Everyone here is always a tremendous help with all sorts of topics.