This Tuesday I got had a car accident. I was on my to class and stoped to get gas (I could have refilled last night, but no I had to wait 'till morning :smack: ). I was T-boned going threw an intersection.
My car is totaled. It was the worst experiance of my life (but I know it could have been alot worse). My left widow shattered and drove into a pole. My airbags went of (the smell was so bad I could barely breath). My knee hit the part of the dash between the door and the steering wheel.
The rescue crew had to cut my door off and I was put into a C-collar and straped to a stretcher (the standerd MVA treatment). I was offered a choice of hospitals and picked the bug fancy regional trauma center (hereafter reffered to as RTC) not the Catholic hospital my mom works at (it wasn’t listed as an option).
Per SOP my pants and underwear were cut off (they let me keep my shirt). I was taken to get leg and chest X-rays. My the time I got back to the ER (about 90 min after the accident) my parents had arrived and we got to play the waiting game. Things went downhill from there. I took about three hours to get my results back. During this time my father went down to the police station to check out my car. When my mom (a cardiac nurse) went to ladies room I paged a nurse for a urinal. 5 minutes later mom came back and asked why my light was flashing. She went to the nurse’s station immediatly in front of my room to get a urinal. She literally had to beg them for one as they were busy make dinner plans! Then the doctor finally came in with my diagnosis.
I shattered the lower half my left kneecap. He put an imoblizer on my leg told my mother to take me home and, when she had time, call and orthopedic surgeon to make an appointment for me. She asked it they could do and was told “it’s not our problem”. That was to absolute worst thing they did.
Mom called an ortho (at her hospital) that alot of nurses from her unit went to and intially they said they couldn’t come to another hospital (they didn’t understand/believe I was being discharged). Then they said it be a few weeks before they could see me and they asked were worked and I had an appiontment for 30 minutes later.
RTC doc gave my scrips for vicodin and ibuprofen, but didn’t administer and painkillers. They were kind enough to issue me crutchs, though the woman who brought them wasn’t allowed to adjust them as she wasn’t a licensed profesional. She then insisted I be scheduled for stair therapy. At this pointed I hadn’t stood up since I got into my car and was being discharged. They offered a wheelchair but as it didn’t have a thing to put my leg up it was usless. We then left for the hospital my mom worked at.
Before I post part two, am I right in saying RTC dropped the ball? Is it normal to expect someone with a broken kneecap to go home and wait a few weeks for sugery?
You would be better off at home then there. It sounds like stair-training woman was the most reasonable one: (IMHO) if you are going home, they should have had a real PT adjust the crutches and train you. How else will you get in and out of the house and car, make it to bathroom, or get to your appointment? At least at home you will not be exposed to other people’s germs. I think it is okay to send someone home quick, IF you know they can handle it. Waiting a few weeks seems risky, though. Knees can get so stiff.
First off I’d like to give a big thanks to y’all for your sympathy.
STILL TUESDAY:
So we drive a few blocks to the hospital my mom works at. We get into the orthopedic surgeons’s office. There were only a few people there so I only had to wait about 30-45 minutes. As expected he confirmed I had broken the lower half of my kneecap. He scheduled me for surgery at noon Wendsday. He also gave me my medical certificates for work and school. I can’t work for 3 months and hope to go back to school next week (I may cut down from 15 to 12 credits). We left the hospital and stoped off at the pharmacy on the way home. They basically let my mother sign out a wheelchair with leg extender for free (what’s she gonna do run off with it?).
After I got my pain pills I spent most of that night campted out in the living room. And at 12 I started my obligatory fast.
WENDSDAY:
The surgery went well, of course since I was under GA I don’t remember it or most of the time I spent in the post-op recovery room. After that I was moved to my (private ) room. The earlist time I remember it being after my surgery was about 5:30 pm. I got to eat dinner (which tasted really good fasting for 18 hours. After I was done with the hospital dinner (stuffed shells, bread, chocolate mouse, and Italian Ice) I sent my mother to the cafeteria for a cheesesteak and fries ( I was really hungry). That night was uneventfull. I stayed in bed and was pretty doped up. I was able to pee for the nurse and avoid a catheder. The painkillers kept wearing off every couple of hours. Finally my ortho came to see me. My patella was shattered into too small pieces for him to use pins and wire so he stiched them togather. Apparntly this is good as it saves me a second surgery.
THURSDAY:
I woke up and eventually had breakfast (scrambled eggs, oatmeal, fruit). Most of my time was spent waiting and watching TV (and dealing with a remote control with 1 button for everything). After breakfast the nurse brough me stuff so I could give my self a sponge bath and brush my teeth, hair, etc. Later that morning the physical therapist arrived and adjusted my crutchs and had my walk to the end of the hallway and back. I had lunch and the ortho saw me again. I was going to be discharged that afternoon. My mother arrived. Apparntly there was a large snowstorm in progress. I had more therapy including stair therapy.
At the last moment (after I had dressed and was ready to leave) I had to go down for more X-rays. After that I was discharged.
It’s nice being home, but not being able to move around (or shower) is frustrating. I got less than fours hours sleep last night. As long as I don’t try to move around and take my vicodin every four hours I’m fine. I get my stitches out in 2 weeks and start physically therapy in a month (which everyone tells me is going to be fub :rolleyes: ) . The worst part of the hospital experiance (other than the pain) was the waiting. My car is totalled and I’ll have an leg imobilizer for the next six weeks. I should be able to go back to class Monday in a wheelchair.
So sorry to hear about your trials and tribulations. You certainly weren’t looking for something like this to happen to you. I think you’ve come through it like a champ.
Best wishes for quick healing and minimal pain, and a full recovery.
OK, enough of Mr. Nice Guy. Assuming that you were not the one at fault, I’d only suggest you make double sure your left knee rehabs perfectly…just in case you want to use the lawsuit settlement for a nice Ferrari or Lambo instead of a kick-ass nest egg for the future. Takes a decent left knee to work the clutch on those multi-speed manual transmissions…
Huh? What…
I’m sorry for the pain you’re in and going to be in, but I have to ask… if they cut off your pants and underwear, did you leave the emergency room naked from the waist down?
I really do sympathize as much as is possible from someone who hasn’t had a similar injury. All I did was break a wrist – and my left one at that (I’m right-handed) – and I was about to break my other wrist beating someone to death from the frustration I felt in not being able to do simple things like, oh, take a shower or go to the potty unassisted. And that only lasted the first week and a half or so for me, because the docs wanted me to start daily activities again as much as possible as soon as possible with that sort of injury.
You will not enjoy physical therapy, but remember, you will get out of it as much as you put into it. If you want full use and mobility of your knee, do all the “homework” exercises they give you and give 100% while you’re there, even if you have to cry and cuss through the whole session. Take your pain meds before you go. It gets better after the first few sessions.
That sucks. I was in an accident once (wasn’t driving) and my knees slammed the dash too - luckily I didn’t break anything, but they were BLACK and BLUE for a few weeks. Got excused from gym though (in high school). A hot fireman checked my knees for breaks, too.
Good luck getting around campus in a wheelchair. Hopefully your campus isn’t as big as mine - my arms would fall off trying to wheel to just one class.
My accident (2-11-06) was very similar to yours (car t-boned on an intersection, then stopped). However my air-bags didn’t go off.
The result, however was a bit worse. The accident broke the bones in my right thigh in 4 pieces. I got taken to the nearest hospital about half an hour later. The next morning around 10 they inserted a nail in my bones to hold them together. I was in the hospital 'til wednesday (2-15-06) and have been at home since.
I am currently in physio for a small sub chondral fracture of my left knee. I find it amusing whenever the therapists ask if what they’re doing hurts, and ask if they missed the class telling them what tears meant. I don’t ask them to stop, though.
) . The worst part of the hospital experiance (other than the pain) was the waiting. My car is totalled and I’ll have an leg imobilizer for the next six weeks. I should be able to go back to class Monday in a wheelchair.