Friday 30 July 2010

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.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, I'm sorry to hear it turned out to be worse than you had hoped. Prayers for your recovery.

Mark said...

Hrmmm... sounds interesting, but not very nice really!

I do hope you get better soon, but it will take time, the damage considering. Do let me know when you would like that Skype chat.

All my prayers,
Mark

Clare@ BattlementsOfRubies said...

Poor you.
My son ( the 16yo) sustained an mcl tear playing rugby. I was really worried that he might need surgery, but he's fine now.
He did need crutches for a bit to keep the weight off it.
Hope you're get back on your feet soon, don't forget the anti inflammatory pain meds either!

There are some good medical videos about it here if you , or your readers, like that kind of thing:
http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Diagnose-Medial-Collateral-Ligament-Tears-231373488

Mulier Fortis said...

Thanks Clare - but really, I have had more surgery on my (other) knee than hot dinners cooked by my own fair hand (not counting microwave meals), so I consider myself rather well-versed in this sort of stuff.

It does amuse me that I have succeeded in getting a common sports-related injury, when I am the least likely person to engage in sports of any description that you can possibly imagine...

madame evangelista said...

Oh dear :(
prayers for your recovery

gemoftheocean said...

BTW, PLEASE tell me you went back to the 1st person and said "in the interest of educating your sorry ***, I WAS RIGHT AND YOU WERE WRONG - NEXT TIME, LISTEN!"

Dominic Mary said...

MRI's aren't painful (although they're 'mentally uncomfortable', due to being trapped more-or-less motionless in this sort of deranged vacuum flask jobbie), but they give a good opportunity to say a good few Aves . . . as long as the Rosary has no metal in it : so unless you alreay have a metal-free one, I shall be sending you one before the end of August !

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