3rd sports medicine/orthopedic specialist is the best experience so far!
like the first doc, he spent time doing a series of knee and leg tests/exercises to narrow down the type of injury, or injuries, i may have done to my knee. the biggest difference from today’s doc compared to the first one is that i felt he spent more time trying to explain what might be happening and let me ask the questions on my mind – apparently i had questions written all over my face because he even called me out on it, “looks like you have some questions…” 
)
i had an x-ray done on both knees instead of an MRI. seeing how the second doc was so quick to issue MRI tests (and the first one warned me to not fall for the quick “you need an MRI” answer), i asked many questions on the difference in both methods and how come i had an x-ray vs. MRI.
the response was that initial tests indicate that i didn’t need an MRI. he said that getting an MRI quickly is usually very aggressive. 2 out of 3 tests he did to my legs signal no problems with my meniscus, however a partial meniscus tear eludes any of the tests he had done and would need an MRI to see it – BUT, even if i had a partial tear, surgery is still not recommended in that case. If anything, he said surgery would make the situation worse. good news is that my x-rays came out boring, meaning nothing is wrong with my bones and knees in those pics…space in between bone and cartilage is normal and there are no tumors (not sure why he looked for that though).
whew!!!
the biggest bummer of the meeting is that i found out that my body type is more prone to knee problems. it has to do with the angle of my leg from the hip to the knee and the angle from the knee to the lower leg. apparently the angle is a lot more than most people, so i’ll always have a larger risk for knee problems compared to others – dOh!
if you’re looking for a sports medicine doc to spend some quality time examining your problems, i definitely recommend dr. park!
