Well, it's been four days since "The Incident". I'd love to say I'm up, happy, and running around, but then I'd be lying. The truth of the matter is that, though I'm leaps and bounds better than when it first happened, I'm still far from where I want and (more importantly) need to be. The Doctor Visit: Yesterday I had my first checkup with the doctor. Unfortunately, the doctor I was supposed be visiting doesn't accept the HMO I'm under, so we were forced to see a different doctor. This of course meant that I was walking into an office to see a man who had absolutely no prior knowledge of my accident except for what I jotted down on the clipboard in the lobby. After the new doctor took a look at my leg and ordered up some new x-rays, he had some good news and some cautionary news.
The Good News: My leg is now well enough that I can bend it. I have to admit I was really scared the first time (after having it lay straight for 3 days), but once I got it bent I was thoroughly relieved. I cannot express how joyous it is to know that when I sit down I can take off the brace and actually sit normally. The doctor also said that I should start working the leg, bending and straightening it, to build it's strength back up. This is very exciting for me. It basically means that I'm not confined to my bed anymore. I can actually move about and possibly even [somewhat] enjoy myself around the house.
The Cautionary News: this all seemed like pretty good news, and while he did say I shouldn't get all worried about what he was going to tell me, he did have some words of caution. The doctor said that while I should be on my way to a nice recovery, there was a slight chance that my knee could spontaneously dislocate again, several times. If this turns out to be the case, it means I will need surgery to correct the problem. This, is obviously not the outcome I'm hoping for.
I have a follow-up appointment in two weeks. Hopefully by then, I'll have full mobility back and I wont have to go to therapy, which will be mandatory if I've not recovered by then. For now, I'll just have to continue to deal with the side effects of my injury.
The Pain: At this point in the game, pain is not the issue I'm dealing with anymore. I'm not going to pretend that it feels "all fine and dandy", but the real issue I'm dealing with is pressure and immobility. If I'm just laying there relaxing (or anything that involves not moving), I [can] almost forget that I have any injury at all. It's when I'm forced to move because of a cramp or because I'm physically moving from one area to another that the discomfort sets in.
The Pressure: Apparently, as it was explained to me, when my knee dislocated, it tore a bunch of ligaments and other organy things (okay, so anatomy was never my subject) which have since bled into the knee cavity. This is why my knee looks so swollen, because it's filled with blood. While it's not to much of an inconvenience when my leg is straightened out, bending my knee tightens the skin around the cavity and creates enough pressure to create a lot of discomfort. It is, however, completely manageable and I'm ecstatic that it's all I have to deal with now.
The Real Issue: Even with the discomfort, pressure, and immobility, we haven't even gotten to the real issue that's making this whole experience so difficult for me. The problem is that the injury is to my driving leg and I live 20 miles from both place I work. Fortunately, because my "Tuesday, Thursday" job is graphic design work, I've been able to work both days from my house, but I'm not so lucky with my Audio Engineer position. Did I mention that I usually lug my G5 and both monitors to the office each day?
It would be one thing to try and find someone to pick me up and drop me off at work everyday, it's another thing to find someone who will crawl under my computer desk, unplug everything, pack it in the car, drive me to work, unpack, and set it all back up in the office for me. With the holiday last week, I've already missed three days of work and I literally cannot afford to miss anymore. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. All three of my bosses are actually out of town at an Audiobook Publishers Convention, so I have to wait till they're back before I can discuss it with them and try to work something out.
The [Other] Real Issue: As most of you know, I'm supposed to be in my new place right now. Obviously the accident has made it a little hard to move. Not to mention the fact that if I do move, I get dropped from my mothers health insurance which is covering all the costs of my injury. So, I don't even know where to go with that.
And with that, I think I'll leave you and return to my leg "exercises" (if you can even call them that). Thanks again for all the support and good wishes I've received from all of you.
posted by Christopher Schnese