Day 87: The Challenges Continue

I have good news, and bad news. The good news is two-fold. The knees continue to amaze me. There is simply no pain, ever. The muscles around them still need strengthening, but other than a reduction in stamina, I feel like I have real knees and not huge hunks of metal. I am grateful for them every single day.

The bad news, which is also good news when you put it into perspective, is that the MRI I had last week showed a 7 cm synovial cyst on my lumbar spine. This cyst is totally benign, but large enough to pinch off the nerves and cause the pain and numbness in my left leg. That leg is getting weaker by the day. The cyst will have to be removed, so I will be having more surgery soon. Which I am NOT looking forward to doing.

The good news is that we know what is wrong with my back, after nearly a year of treatment. For many back injuries, the cause is never completely identified and as a result, surgeries fail to provide relief for nearly half of all patients. I was really worried about having surgery when we were dealing with a "pinched nerve," but now that I know I have a fluid-filled cyst causing the problem, I am anxious to get it out of there.

By the way, this condition and set-back is NOT related to the knee surgery at all. It's just a very inconvenient coincidence.