Poor Brian, his birthday was on Saturday, and how did I help him celebrate? By taking a trip to the Emergency room and hobbling around on crutches and being gimpy and needing lots of help. Let me tell you, crutches with an infant=nearly impossible! Pretty much, I reinjured my left knee and had to wear a brace and use crutches up until yesterday. While we don’t know exactly how I hurt it again, we think it happened during Bella’s birth, when they were holding my legs and I was pushing, the combined force of me pushing against their counter pressure could have caused some damage, and then something I did on Friday was the final straw that made my knee be rendered useless. I woke up Saturday morning and my knee was locked at a 90 degree angle, I couldn’t bend it or straighten it; it was more painful than labor!
I went to the ER knowing that they wouldn’t be able to do much, but I figure it was best to go since no other doctors would be around until Monday morning. They took some x-rays to make sure the “hardware” or screws from my first surgery hadn’t started to loosen and come unscrewed. Those were still intact, so they sent me home with a gigantic brace and a prescription of vicodin and told me to contact a sports medicine doctor on Monday. Since my knee was locked in the bent position, I had to forcibly straighten it to get the brace on, a job which I did. It took me 3 hours and lots of swear words, but by Sunday morning, the brace was on I was able to move around a lot easier.
Brian and I decided to go to a movie Sunday night, and I took a vicodin on too empty of a stomach, I guess, because 20 minutes after being there, I started throwing up everywhere, so we had to leave…once again, Happy Birthday Brian, ha!
I met with the specialist Monday afternoon who ordered an MRI, which I had done on Tuesday and then met with him yesterday to discuss the results. We had feared I tore the ACL (anterior-cruciate ligament), as well as the Meniscus cartilage again, which would require a second surgery, but luckily, those both looked intact. The problem, however, is I have excessive swelling in my knee area caused from a chip in my femur bone due to the onset of arthritis, as well as bone marrow edema (fluid build up in my bone marrow). The fragments are very small, and they couldn’t find them on the MRI and decided it could do more damage and cause more problems to go on a “fishing expedition” in there and get them out, so we are going to do some physical therapy over the next few months to strengthen the muscles to alleviate pressure from the uneven distribution of my weight on the knee. I favor my good knee, obviously, which made my butt muscle smaller on my left side, in turn making my knee weaker and the arthritis worse. It is a good thing that I don’t need surgery again, but I am frustrated in the fact that this problem potentially could get worse (arthritis never really goes away or gets better) and this could re-flare at anytime. Hopefully, the therapy will do enough to stave off any more problems until Bella is older and does not need to be carried everywhere. I am off crutches and no longer wearing the brace, but my knee still feels weak and I can’t stand on it alone. I will keep you all posted on any changes in the future.
I went to the ER knowing that they wouldn’t be able to do much, but I figure it was best to go since no other doctors would be around until Monday morning. They took some x-rays to make sure the “hardware” or screws from my first surgery hadn’t started to loosen and come unscrewed. Those were still intact, so they sent me home with a gigantic brace and a prescription of vicodin and told me to contact a sports medicine doctor on Monday. Since my knee was locked in the bent position, I had to forcibly straighten it to get the brace on, a job which I did. It took me 3 hours and lots of swear words, but by Sunday morning, the brace was on I was able to move around a lot easier.
Brian and I decided to go to a movie Sunday night, and I took a vicodin on too empty of a stomach, I guess, because 20 minutes after being there, I started throwing up everywhere, so we had to leave…once again, Happy Birthday Brian, ha!
I met with the specialist Monday afternoon who ordered an MRI, which I had done on Tuesday and then met with him yesterday to discuss the results. We had feared I tore the ACL (anterior-cruciate ligament), as well as the Meniscus cartilage again, which would require a second surgery, but luckily, those both looked intact. The problem, however, is I have excessive swelling in my knee area caused from a chip in my femur bone due to the onset of arthritis, as well as bone marrow edema (fluid build up in my bone marrow). The fragments are very small, and they couldn’t find them on the MRI and decided it could do more damage and cause more problems to go on a “fishing expedition” in there and get them out, so we are going to do some physical therapy over the next few months to strengthen the muscles to alleviate pressure from the uneven distribution of my weight on the knee. I favor my good knee, obviously, which made my butt muscle smaller on my left side, in turn making my knee weaker and the arthritis worse. It is a good thing that I don’t need surgery again, but I am frustrated in the fact that this problem potentially could get worse (arthritis never really goes away or gets better) and this could re-flare at anytime. Hopefully, the therapy will do enough to stave off any more problems until Bella is older and does not need to be carried everywhere. I am off crutches and no longer wearing the brace, but my knee still feels weak and I can’t stand on it alone. I will keep you all posted on any changes in the future.
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