To be disappointed my scan was normal

[cantdothisanymor]

I saw a physio ages ago and was told I likely had a torn meniscus.

I’ve finally had the scan and the report says all is fine, just a small cyst. It could be a ganglion or a parameniscal. But it’s all fine.

I’ve got an appointment booked in with an orthopaedic consultant to discuss the scan properly but I’m almost sad that I just have to live with this pain now. For the last year I’ve been in agony, every step hurts, and now it turns out it’s just me being a baby.

I could cry, I really thought that I was about to find an answer and a cure. But this is just how I live my life now. I can’t imagine another 70 years of this agony.

I doubt I’ll get one. You have to be bed bound for a pain referral

No you havent you've been told its not a tear in your miniscus.

Theres a lot of pain so the cyst is probably pressing against something and needs removing. Go back and insist it be explored further.

No one expects you to simply live in pain.

And I’ve been told it’s all fine and I just have to live with it

But you haven't been told that at all... you haven't even seen the consultant yet. You need to have further investigations. You have pain. You have cysts. You need to stop saying everything is fine... its not, you just haven't got the answers yet.

I doubt it’s even the cyst causing it. From where the report says it is, compared to where my pain is, it’s obviously just me being stupid.

I understand my own version of this op and it's bloody awful.

Many people think a normal scan or blood results should be a relief, but that's often not the case and feels the opposite.

I can't tell you how much I've longed for an abnormal result over the years, just to feel validated and have hope for treatment or even just some relief.

The fact is, many tests do not show various forms of inflammation or other issues that can lead to pain or illness. And consequently, doctors don't recognise them. It's a horrible state of affairs and my heart goes out to you.

Have you looked into seeing someone privately?

I don't think there's anything that can be done OP. It's a small, painless cyst and the NHS won't operate on it. How are you going to manage the pain and disruption to your life for the next 70-odd years?

So you go to PALS and complain.

OP, kindly, why don’t you wait until your consultant appointment. I presume they haven’t cancelled this? So they therefore think there is merit in seeing you.

They can test the nerve in neurology. I had testing which proved i had ulnar neuropathy.

I don’t know. I genuinely don’t know. I’ve lost so much of myself over the last year and now I just have to accept this is how I am now

@cantdothisanymor - your pain is real. All the current scan results mean is that they don’t know why you have such severe knee pain - but that is not the end of the road! When you see the consultant, you can tell him you are still in pain, and ask what the next steps are, to identify the source of the pain and to find a treatment.

This is not the end, it is just the end of step one.

Pain is exhausting and depressing, so I understand completely why you are feeling so despondent and hopeless right now, but I truly hope you can take a breath and realise there is still hope - not easy, I know.

Theres definitely something wrong OP, the MRI is not the Oracle. There are some things an MRI cant pick up. My bro in law discovered this for himself. He had a maltracking issue which I cant remember so I googled it - here you go:

patellofemoral issues: (chondromalacia, maltracking) — cartilage wear under the kneecap, very common cause of pain-with-every-step that MRI can miss if it's not looked at specifically. Also the same search mentioned synovial plica syndrome ehich apparently is a fold of tissue that gets irritated and mimics meniscal pain.

Who knows if it is either but OP do not stop looking. If you feel the pain your body is telling you theres a problem and it is something an MRI cant identify.

I can’t afford a long list of private appointments and treatments though. The entire point was the scan was meant to show the issue, I saw the consultant and agreed to surgery and got put on the nhs waiting list

I know where you're coming from. It's the removal of hope.

Every time I'm introduced to a new consultant I hopefully think, "maybe this one will be interested enough to find out what's going on with my failing organs", only to find out during and after the first appointment that they give zero shits.

I've met the actual consultant once. I nearly fell on the floor with shock.

Promises are only made about the FIRST appointment see, nothing about following it up afterwards.

Other hospitals might be different, I don't know, but there's only one round here and their reputation is shit. My experience tends to back that up. Even the doctors think it's a shithole. They badmouth it rotten online.

People are wasting their time responding to this - OP has posted loads of threads about her knee and they all go the same way.

I just wanted an answer, some sort of hope that this might not continue

What? No I haven’t. I’ve not posted about it before.

Nowhere on that letter does it say 'you're a baby', 'it doesn't hurt', 'it doesn't matter','it's not painful'.

I voted YABU because the scan does NOT say you’re a baby.
It doesn’t say you’re going to be in pain for the rest of life.
It just means theres nothing they can see on a scan.

And please don’t let tge consultant or a physio fob you off as ‘one those things’ or ‘you’re just anxious’.

Well, if it's not you, there's another poster with an identical injury and identical posting style.

I just hope that because it’s a private consultation it might be a little more productive

Good for them.

Btw @cantdothisanymor pkease ask your consultant if he just read the comments from the radiographer or if he saw the scan himself.

Summaries with the scans are known to have been wrong…..

I have to take the pictures along to the appointment and he’ll apparently go through them then

I'm so confused - my knee was painful and they found a cyst and tried to drain it and put steriod in. Have they refused to do that for you?