Today I Had My First Prolotherapy Injection
Conquering chronic knee pain without surgery.
The click-click and associated pain in my left knee have plagued me for months, though it’s been more than three years since I tore my meniscus jumping a fence to get to my assigned entrance gate at WrestleMania. Though the original course of physical therapy helped for a while, runner’s knee and a grating kneecap periodically come back — and this time, I haven’t been able to shake it off.
Descending stairs is a necessary evil. I quit running, paused my kickboxing membership, and bought a bicycle. Every hot day I aim to find somewhere to swim, but the coastline where I live is loaded with rocks. Though I try to keep my activity level up, I’ve gained 40 pounds thanks to the job I love coming with a three-hour (round-trip) commute. That extra weight isn’t doing my poor knee any favors.
My latest MRI results made the orthopedist finally say the dreaded “s” word: surgery. I’m in my early 30s. If I get surgery now to repair what is essentially an arthritic knee and assume that medical science can’t come up with a better solution in the next 20 years, I’ll need that same surgery again in my 50s — and yet again in my 70s. I’m not playing that game.
