Last Thanksgiving, I stepped wrong, twisted my knee, and ended up severely straining my meniscus. I went to see my physical therapist once a week during January, hoping to get it back into shape.

While PT helped, I still wasn’t healed. So I arranged to see my masseuse once a week for the next few weeks. She doesn’t do relaxing massage. She works on injuries, and works really closely with my PT.

Since Thanksgiving, I’ve had a knot about the size of a quarter at the back of my knee, where the calf attaches. Last Friday, my masseuse broke that knot apart. It was pretty painful. I didn’t walk so much as hobble around for a couple of days. Then it got better, but I wasn’t in good shape.

A couple of days ago, I went back to see my masseuse. I had anticipated (and planned for) the same occurrence, namely, that I wouldn’t be able to walk for a couple of days.

However, the opposite happened. When I got off the table, I suddenly realized that I was in LESS pain. Significantly less pain. This has continued. I am not completely pain free. But instead of every step being a 5-8 on a pain scale of 1-10, it’s now down to a 2-3.

It’s remarkable how good that drop in pain level has felt. I can sit without pain, or even lay down. It’s really nice to not be in constant pain. I don’t think I realized just how bad it was, not until it disappeared.

At this point, I still need to be REALLY CAREFUL. I cannot push. So I’m only doing the pedal machine for 10 minutes at a time, if that. I’m not walking too much. I am still walking with my brace on. I am standing more, am able to stand when I write, which is really important to me.

My masseuse told me to stop any exercise if it felt painful. My husband teased me about that, primarily because I don’t generally pay any attention to pain.

If I had stopped before when things were painful with my knee, I never would have done anything. Period. It always hurt.

Now, there are actual levels of pain. I can tell when I’m doing something I need to stop because I can feel an increase in the pain.

One of the other things I need to keep in mind is that I could not have done this on my own. I know my physical therapist thought that I would be able to heal on my own. She was wrong. I don’t think I ever would have gotten better. My muscles were just too tight, too sore. They never would have released on their own.

I tend to think that I can do most anything by myself, given enough time and grit. This is one of those times when I absolutely needed someone else, an expert to work with.

Possibly I could have gotten better on my own, but I suspect it would have taken months or years.

Now, I’m hopeful that I’ll be mostly healed in just a few more weeks.

I’m not to the point where we can rehabilitate my knee. It isn’t well enough yet for that. Maybe next week, though.

When have you had to go to an expert for help? Did they help?