The Next Leg Of My Recovery...

Sorry about that blog post title...

Today I had the 7-day follow-up appointment at the hospital fracture clinic. I was a little bit naughty - my appointment was actually for 10:30am, but I wanted to go to Mass first. Working on the assumption that hospital outpatient departments never succeed in seeing anyone on time, I decided to risk a late arrival, on the understanding that I might have to end up waiting until everyone who was on time had been seen first.

I was delighted to see, when I got there, that the clinic was running an hour and twenty minutes late.

First I had to have some more X-rays taken. I was a little confused, because the doctor in A&E had told me that I had torn a muscle. I had been slightly dubious at the time, as I had distinctly heard (and felt) a cracking/snapping in my knee, and my not inconsiderable experience of knee problems had led me to assume that this indicated damage to a tendon or ligament, as muscles don't crack, but I was willing to accept that I could be wrong. To be honest, I liked the idea of it being a muscle, because they heal relatively quickly, with nothing other than rest, elevation of the affected limb, ice packs and painkillers. Anyway, torn muscles don't show up on X-ray, and I thought it was a rather unnecessary waste of time, but, since I was doing my cooperative patient bit for the Holy Souls, I dutifully hopped off.

When I finally got to see the orthopaedic chappie, he gave me a thorough examination (rather more thorough than the one I had last week, but then again, this week I wasn't screaming my head off every time someone touched my leg). It still hurt, but not as much. He proceeded to zoom in on the X-rays - they were on the computer screen, and I was dying to hand over a USB stick to ask for a copy, but I refrained. He didn't strike me as having much of a sense of humour. Then the discouraging noises started.

It seems that I have damaged the medial collateral ligament, and may have damaged the meniscus as well. I have been given a knee brace to wear - a horrendously uncomfortable hinged thing, which is designed to stop the knee from bending too much in the wrong direction. I will also have to have physiotherapy - but there is a waiting list for this, despite the doctor writing "urgent" on the form. Finally, I have to have an MRI scan - luckily they had a slot at the end of August. A follow-up appointment with the orthopaedic chappie will then decide whether or not any surgical intervention is needed...

Ho hum...

As an interesting aside, during the consultation I made a reference to myself as "fat." The doctor told me that they weren't allowed to say that any more, but he was having difficulty in remembering the "acceptable" terminology while trying to ascertain whether there was an underlying medical reason for me being "...ummm, errr... large." My comment that I liked eating and didn't like exercise seemed to disconcert him just a trifle.