I have a doctor's appointment on Friday and I'm worried

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

On Saturday I thought the three day weekend would be a great time to go through the bins above the kitchen cabinets. I’d sort out stuff to bring to the Salvation Army, and put away my cat’s mats and dishes so I’d be a little less sad (theoretically). The kitchen has high ceilings, so there’s quite a lot up there, and being short, this meant hauling out the tall step ladder. I got it all sort and put everything back. Almost. It was bringing down a little bin that I’d stuck on the fridge while moving everything else that ended up being my downfall.

Literally.

I fell off the second to last step of the ladder, and landed on my left knee. It hurt like hell for a couple of minutes, but I was surprised to find that I could stand, and even walk without a whole lot of pain. Except my knee buckled alarmingly, and repeatedly.

I called my brother, and we went off to urgent care. They took a lot of x-rays, and fortunately, nothing is broken. But the knee still worried the doctor because it moves right to left significantly more than it should (though he thinks my natural flexibility is more than normal in even in the non-injured knee). So I have a follow up appointment with orthopedics to look at possible ligament or cartilage damage, although doc #1 was fairly confident if I did ligament damage, at least I hadn’t completely snapped it because while it moves too freely, apparently not that freely.

I’m in a knee immobilizer at the moment, and home from work because, stairs are hard, and I’m a bit concerned about driving. I’m in pain, but still not a lot - and as far as I can tell, I’m not bruised which seems odd. This extra time off has given me a lot of time to worry.

How bad is the news on Friday going to be? I can cope with a surgery, if it comes to that, but honestly, I’m more worried about the short term. Am I going home Friday with this damn immobilizer still? I’m almost out of milk, I need to get back to work, and it won’t stop snowing, and…

Is there any chance that I’ll get another brace that will keep my knee from moving side to side, but allow me to bend it enough to get down stairs and drive okay? And not to necessarily have to use the accessible stall at work? Because, and this is a little TMI at the moment I can only wipe up if I pull my right leg out of my pants. It’s annoying enough now, but my period should be starting very, very soon! That’s hard enough with sweat pants and fleece pants, but I’ll need to wear real pants to work.

Pax East is the last week of February - am I going to be reasonably better by then? Or will I have to skip it a second year in a row? (Dad had a heart attack less than a week before last year so I had to stay behind to look after him).

Can someone(s) else who has knee injuries either reassure me or tell me scary-but-illustrative stories about their own recoveries? I’m 42, btw, and reasonably healthy.

I feel dumb. I only fell from a height of about two feet, and never considered how such a short fall could cause real damage to anything other than your head if you landed on it.

2

If stuff is just stretched and not torn, you MAY be able to skip surgery. There won’t be any bending, however.

Did the kneecap either partially or completely dislocate?

The swelling from a knee injury is stupendous, and if you fail to follow direction and still try to hobble around, the swelling will go down your leg to your ankle and foot. FYI, that feels horrible, like your foot is a bag of sand

You’ll probably need an MRI so the ortho can see the actual damage to the soft tissues.
~VOW

3

I did something to my knee over a year ago. The doctor recommended surgery to remove some cartilage fragments, and possibly work on a bone issue. 6 weeks non-weight bearing to follow. I elected to wait and see, with his ok. It has been mostly fine until 2 weeks ago. My joint is sliding around, it hurts all the time, my knee is swollen. I think my wait and see time just ran out.

4

The ex tore her acl some years ago. The wait between injury and medical attention(separate bit of drama there that isn’t relevant) was excruciating. I went with her to one of her pre-op consultations and the doc moved her knee in ways that made the small boys hurt and try to hide, just to watch it. She’s fine now, many years later unless she spends like 12 hours on her feet or it gets ungodly cold, then she aches in that leg clear to her hip. She recieves a monthly stipend from Uncle Sam for it and has been told that stipend will grow as time goes by (she’s rated at something% disabled by the VA, enough to get paid. They expect it to get worse as she ages). It sounds to me like at worst maybe some minor tearing or major stretching of your acl, or perhaps miniscus from clear over here.

5

Argh. They called yesterday and rescheduled for Thursday. But the pain isn’t too bad and the anti-inflammatory is good because there’s not too much swelling.

Sunny Daze, have you been in a brace all this time, or did you get better enough not to keep needing one?