Back from the doc in Stuff

I’m back from the doctor! I managed to squeeze in an appointment and got back just in time for the lighting guy, who was a half-hour early.

Anyway, it was all a bit confusing. Even the form he printed out for me in all it’s medical terminology is a bit “Huh? What now?”
So, in this day and age, I asked ChatGPT to break it down to me like I’m a child.

“Explain to me like I’m a child - Medial meniscus undersurface oblique tear with a large para meniscal cyst extruding through the joint capsule into the extracapsular space. Superficial MCL proximal fibre scarring.”
“ChatGPT
Alright, let’s break it down step by step!

Imagine your knee is like a door hinge. It helps your leg move smoothly, like opening and closing a door. Inside the knee, there are special parts called the meniscus and the ligaments that help keep everything in place.

Now, let’s talk about the meniscus. Think of it like a soft cushion that sits between the bones in your knee. It helps absorb shock and keeps your knee stable. Sometimes, the meniscus can get a little tear, like a small rip in your favorite toy. In this case, there’s a tear on the bottom part of the cushion, and it’s at an angle, kind of like a diagonal line.

But wait, there’s more! Along with this tear, there’s something called a cyst. Picture a balloon filled with water. This cyst is like a little balloon filled with fluid, and it’s bulging out from where the tear is. It’s even poking out of the special covering of your knee, called the joint capsule, into the space around your knee.

Now, let’s talk about the ligament. Ligaments are like strong bands that hold your knee together. One of them, called the superficial MCL, has some scarring. Imagine if you had a tiny scratch on your toy, but instead of healing perfectly, it left a little rough spot. That’s what’s happened to this ligament.

So, to put it simply, your knee has a tear on the cushion inside, which has made a little bulge filled with fluid. Plus, one of the strong bands holding your knee together has a rough spot from a past injury. It’s like your knee has a few bumps and scratches that need some attention to help it feel better!”

So that helps me a lot more. I need to be spoken to like a kid. Anyway, my doctor has booked me in for a referral to see a specialist (orthpaedic surgeon) dealing with this type of injury. He said depending on the type of tear, surgery can’t even be done on some of them. He also said a lot of surgeons won’t even see me without health insurance, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. It will cost between $10,000-$12,000 to get done privately, since I don’t have public hospital. If I sign up for that now, this will be pre-existing, one would assume. Publically, it is the usual runaround mess, but it seems that’s what he’s looking to book me in for, depending on the specialist advice. He has sent them the copies of my x-ray, ultrasound and MRI, so I assume all they’ll need to do is review it and say ‘yay or nay’? But now, I just have to wait until they contact me, which could be a huge amount of time, who knows. Just as well I’m not in too much pain, and it’s nice to have some more answers. Looks like I’ll be sticking with the castor oil for now.