My poor, poor knee

So Work Day 2 I sprained my right knee.  Initially it was unclear rather it was a sprain which resulted in several hours of tears and intense anxiety that I would be sent home on an airplane.

I fell in the darkened hallway between maternity and nursery. The floor was wet but hard to see because of the lighting.  I was found by my sweet Kenyan friend Lois who works in maternity who brought me a wheelchair.  Initially we really did not know what I was to do. I called my neighbor who has been playing hostess to me. She told me to go the Private clinic, a place I did not know existed. I waited in the waiting room, fighting tears of the thought of having a patella fracture and having to go home, watching my knee swell up rapidly. I managed to hold it together long enough to get a x-ray which I was pushed to the front of the line for and waited for over 2 hours for an orthopedist consult.  Lois stayed with me the whole time despite being on duty and me being somewhat of a basket case.  My neighbor showed up briefly and then left which I thought was a testament to how wonderful my Kenyan friends are.  I was very grateful for the company. I took a preliminary read and was relieved to see no transverse fracture but there was a small indention on my patella that I wasn’t sure about. 

The orthopedist finally got out of theater took one look at me and I said, “Um before you look at that film we should talk.”  He said, “Yes I have seen you around and seen the scars on your legs, we need to talk.” He found a private exam room (miraculous) and I of course gave him the 120 sec version of my life story.  He looked at the film and agreed with me that there was no real fracture, the mark on my patella could be new or it could have been there forever.  The fact I still had excellent flexion and nearly full extension leaned toward not a fracture. It wasn’t unstable and had negative signs for ligament tears. He told me to go home on crutches, ice it and see how it looked in a few days. If it got better, it was probably a strain on a ligament or bad bone bruise in the context of my terrible arthritis which was probably leading to the impressive swelling. I actually thought this was reasonable because I could bear weight reasonably. It just looked awful. The pain got worse that night but improved dramatically the next day.  

It has slowly improved since then I am off crutches around the house and one crutch out in the world.  The ortho and mine current conclusion is I have a partial tear in my patella tendon. We know its not total because my patella is still in the right spot (not mobile) but my pain now is confined to extension at the site of the patella tendon). This should heal slowly with rest. Pray it continues to heal!!!!!! It has kept me from getting to go up and do as much especially at work.