Knee stuff

 I have had all manner of problems with the joints in my left leg every since I broke my tibia & fibula in a skiing accident on April 6, 1970.  

In 2014, I had my left ankle fused after 44 years of chronic pain. I guess that chronic pain needed a new home because it moved up into my knee. I've had cortisone injections, which give pain relief for a few months, and on 5/26/2020, I had an injection of GelOne, a treatment for osteoarthritis. It gave me several months of less pain.  In recent months,  my knee pain has become much harder to tolerate.

One good thing about the covid quarantine is that it's really easy to get appointments with medical providers right now.  I called on Monday,  and I saw the Orthopedic PA today. 

Yesterday I got a phone call from his medical assistant asking me if I was hoping to have an injection of the gel and if so she wanted to initiate a pre-authorization with my insurance company. I gave her the go-ahead to get the pre-authorization. 

When I got there this morning she said that my insurance would not pay for the single shot injection but that would pay for a series of three injections. I was fine with that. Then my PA came into the room and said that I was authorized for the single shot medication afterall. And that started a conversation about which of the two medications I would prefer. A single shot or a series of 3 shots, each one week apart. So after discussing it, we decided I would go with the series of 3 shots to see if I might get a better result than what I had achieved with the single shot. 

He left to gather his supplies and then came back and said that my insurance would not pay for the three shot but that they would pay for a five shot series of Sodium Hyaluronate (Viscosup) or the one shot, my choice. 

Is your head spinning yet? This was rather confusing at the time. 

In the end, I opted for the five shot series of  Sodium Hyaluronate (Viscosup). I based that decision on the 100% success in my right knee with the 5 shot series drug.  So, he numbed the skin, injected the juice, and I was on my way.  It took 15 or 20 minutes to work out the insurance stuff, and 30 seconds to do the first injection.  I go back next week & the week after, then we wait 2 weeks before completing the series of 5.

I'm really hopeful that I get a good result, I actually think it hurts less tonight,  🤞.  The next step is a knee replacement, I would like to postpone that surgery as long as possible.  Figuring out how to make that happen will be tricky,  living alone and all.  I talked to Laila today about the potential for her to come and help if that ends up being my only option.

I don't want to be the old lady who whines and drones on about my medical problems, but it is what it is.

Barley and I had a couple of nice lap cat sessions today. I think she is starting to like it, a little.