It took me three months of physical torture before I diagnosed my problem: I was suffering from one-size-fits-all medicine.
I am one of more than 750,000 Americans who this year will have a total knee replacement, the most common orthopedic operation. Most people do well with the standard physical therapy protocol, but there are many who have a rough rehab.
My knees went bad as a teenager because of OCD — not obsessive-compulsive disorder, but a rare condition known as osteochondritis dissecans. It wreaked havoc on both knees with plenty of pain and frequent dislocations, ultimately leading to extensive surgery just before I started medical school at age 20.
Read the full op-ed on The Washington Post website.
