So if any of you follow my ramblings you will know that I have had a meniscus repair on each of my knees. The left knee was insidious onset about 8 years ago and I still don’t know what caused the damage to the meniscus. My right knee I hurt while sparring about 5 years ago, and in both cases I had a popliteal cyst form. This is caused by extra synovial fluid that is produced in the knee due the “irritation” that the injury is causing and eventually a coating comes off of the tendons as the synovial fluid is being pushed to the back of knee and it is encapsulated and voila you have yourself a genuine popliteal cyst.
When my doctor operated on my left knee he removed the cyst, but chose not to with the right knee. The popliteal area of the knee is very vascular and full of nerves so if the cyst isn’t in a “safe” spot the Docs will leave it alone. That being said the cyst can fill again if there is more “irritation”. Again if you follow my blog, you know of my aggro lifestyle…I push the limit with my knees. For the past few weeks I have noticed that the cyst behind the right knee is nice and full along with some pain in the area of the medial meniscus (3-4 out 10). So I made an appointment with my pal Dr. David Johnson.
He gave me a cortisone shot and told me take it easy for five days. The cortisone is supposed to calm the irritation and allow for the production of synovial fluid to slow enough that the cyst will drain/shrink. We are at day five and the cyst is winning the battle, it doesn’t cause pain but can make my knee feel tight.
I have also been taking Aleve and just started experimenting with Blu Emu Cream (http://bit.ly/29edaac). The combination of the two has helped the pain greatly and I have been able to exercise regularly, while hitting some personal best with my back squat and front squat (315lb. and 255lb. respectively).
Tomorrow I will train legs and call back Dr. Johnson to get his thoughts and Wednesday I’ll be back at the Kung Fu school.
I’ll keep you posted…
