Blood Tests and X-Rays (oh, and a birthday) [Part II]

The following is part two of the three part mini-series on the medical ailments of Nick's knee. And a birthday.

I left you all (ie. the massive, captivated audience that doesn't really exist) on the edge of your seats last week waiting to hear the results of the blood test and X-ray on my right knee. Well, I have another enthralling tale to... enthral you all with. It begins at 2:30pm on a Friday.

I arrived at the doctor's surgery with my mother at the aforementioned time, and, once again, I found myself sitting in the waiting room for a time, before my doctor asked if I would mind seeing a training intern who was down for a few weeks. My mother said I'd be happy too.

In we went, and the intern ("Jess"), sat me down and took a fairly extensive family history on everything from skin diseases to breathing problems before we starting discussing my knee. She asked me to do a few walks, and the 'duck walk' (an excellent look, for anyone with dignity) was the only one awkward enough to make the ball pop out again. She gave me a knee exam, mainly for her practice, before taking a look at the results of the tests.

The blood test was fine, completely normal (my veins are good, apparently), but the x-ray showed something a little more interesting: Osteochondritis Dissecans (oss-tee-oh-con-dry-tis des-ee-cans). The intern didn't have a clue what this was, which made me very happy, as I hated boring illnesses. Then the doctor entered, and yelled at the intern for looking at the test and x-ray results without making a prognosis. 

We went into a different doctor's office (I'm not sure why) and the two made a list of all the possible problems that my knee may have been experiencing (I'm happy to report that Osteochondritis Dissecans was the most interesting sounding of the lot). My doctor then explained that the problem was a little bit of cartilage had broken of and was floating around my knee. This was a pretty common thing among teenagers, as the growing bones mean the blood flow doesn't quite reach the outermost parts of the bones and cartilage, causing the part to die and fall off. 

The doctor said we should go and see an Orthopaedic Surgeon who would most likely do a CAT scan on my knee before deciding whether or not to cut up my knee and pull out the little bit of cartilage. We are booked in with him on December 3rd. For the time being it's looking like I'll  get out of sport for a while and stick to some exercises my mum instructed me to do to strengthen the muscles surrounding my knee.

Anyway, the next birthday on the agenda is my dad's (October 28th), which I now have to shop for. Kinda sucks (for me) that it's so close to Father's Day. Oh, I've also felt a strange, hard lump about 1cm in diameter on the back left part of my neck, which both my parents think is related to the tick I found in my ear yesterday, which caused my left ear to swell wonderfully (and somewhat painfully). Provided the lump isn't cancer, I'm still hoping it's something more interesting still.

Still more wonderful things to report on, but I'll wait for another post for all of them.

In memory of the wondrous art of pre-emptive gluing,
Nick.