Okay, so I fell down randomly a week ago. Gave myself carpet burn on my right knee, but nothing else seemed the matter.
Now for the last few days my knee is killing me. I have the standard burn feeling from the carpet burn, but there’s a much worse pain to it. I have a constant ache that’s lower in the knee than the skin, but about at kneecap-level. I can run, jump, everything but apply pressure to my kneecap. Sides, fine. Top and bottom, fine. Top and bottom of kneecap, fine. Wear a pair of jeans, or heaven forbid, kneel, and get the middle of the kneecap pressed on, and there’s a horrible pain. I can’t really describe it but it’s enough to make me want to cry, no matter how many Celebrex or Advil I’ve taken (I have to take it constantly due to lots and lots of joint diseases and fibromyalgia and auto-immune disorders and stuff).
So, in effect, I don’t know what I did to it, whether I hurt the patella itself, or the tendon/ligament/whatever going over it, or what. Early on in the ordeal, when I first fell, I am fairly sure my kneecap got pushed to the left too far and damaged a bit of muscle over there, since it hurt there a little for a few days. And my kneecaps can slide a LOT. But that doesn’t hurt know, it’s just right smack dab in the middle of the kneecap itself. I am planning on going to the doctor on Monday or Tuesday to have it x-rayed if it’s not miraculously healed by then. But until then, I’d like to know what could possibly be wrong (I like to be well-informed before visiting my doctors) and if I should put heat or ice or something on my knee, or keep it really straight, or keep making sure I bend it a lot to keep the muscle from shrivelling or what.
Get an x-ray (maybe MRI?) as soon as possible - WAG: if there is no swelling, but intense pain, a nerve is probably out of place - a fluid could transfer pressure from the surface to a nerve, but then it would hurt regardless of where the fluid was compressed, and an inflamed nerve would (should?) respond to the drugs.
Neither muscle or bone loss is going to occur over the next 72 hours - just avoid pain until a diagnosis can be made
Oh, yes, forgot to add. No swelling, but a normal-sized (for the injury) yellow/green bruise appeared, but that was after it was hurting like this for a few days. It’s obviously not debilitating, since I can jump and run like normal…but I wouldn’t be surprised if I knocked a nerve about, except for there being no loss in pain when I take my medicines. And Monday is probably the soonest I can get to the doctor, although I’ll try for Sunday (Salt Lake City living = hard to find people on Sunday). =/
So nobody else has any clue either to what might have happened? My “doctor” (a nurse really) isn’t always clued in to what’s going on, she’s always terribly rushed, and I’m somewhat worried that she may have no idea what happened and just tell me to ice it down. (Yeah, it’s happened a few other times; that’s why I want to be well-informed before going.) Or should I skip my general practitioner, go to a…bone doctor? Joint doctor? Sports injury doctor?
If you’re not sure your nurse can give you the answers you need, ask to be referred to an orthopedist. Knees are fiddly things which get effed up easily and don’t always heal all the way, and you need as complete an idea as you can get about what’s going wrong and what needs to be done about it.
The pain is worse I believe, to the point that wearing jeans and bending my knee (causing the fabric to press on the kneecap) hurts. Still, moving it is perfectly fine and only causes discomfort from the tight skin from the carpet burn. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow what’s wrong.
