Because things have been going swimmingly, otherwise?
Today, I managed to step wrong on a bit of uneven ground, and my ankle turned (but did not sprain, for once), and... my knee popped. And down I went.
My knee popped so loudly that the girls riding the honda 20' away said they could hear it.
It hurt, yes, but not so badly that I was dying. I'd heard and felt the pop, but after prodding at it and testing the forward-backward movement, my knee seemed to be functional. So I tried to get up.
That was a bad idea. My knee buckled. It did not buckle in the traditional forward-backward sort of way in which a knee is meant to move. It buckled to the side. And down I went.
So the girls on the honda called the clinic, and a little boy got hold of Cody's leash (this was not his fault) and another young woman brought him home for me, and...
After a bit, the girls on the honda came back and they got me up on the honda and brought me to the clinic, since the health aids hadn't gotten to me, yet.
I had 3 health aids taking care of me. (And, may I just say, it is rather disconcerting to disrobe in front of people who were once your students.)
And my blood pressure, which is typically around 100/60 was 135/90, but my other vitals were unremarkable. We remarked that bruising was already beginning to show, but there wasn't a lot of swelling. The pain was at a 4, but seemed to be increasing. We rested. We iced. We compressed. We elevated. I was given ibuprofen and crutches and a follow-up for Friday. (And a TDAP vaccination, because my records showed that I was overdue.) And we all concurred that I had dislocated my knee, but it was back in position, now.
Except. Except I accidentally put weight on it again, on the way home, and that same sideways buckling happened. Not with any unusual stress, just at the very first moment of putting weight on the foot. So... I went to my friends at Just Answer, and said: "Heal on its own? Or go to Anchorage?"
The nice doctor at Just Answer says: 95% chance completely torn collateral ligament. Go to Anchorage in the next week or so. It doesn't have to be right this minute, as long as you keep RICEing, keep the weight entirely off, don't twist the limb at all... and so forth.
Yes. Well. That was, um. Not part of my plan for next week. I have contacted the dog boarding place. I suspect Cody may be staying there for a while. At least he likes it, there. I think I found a place for TK. I think I found an orthopedist, but I can't contact them until tomorrow.
The worst bit is the timing.
I was smack dab in the middle of moving out of this house for a couple weeks. Everything has to be out, because they're remodeling the inside. Which is it's own mess, but. Yeah. In the middle. But I only have a few big boxes and a couple small boxes for the process. So what I had been doing is filling a box, carrying it to where it goes, emptying it, and then coming back for the next load. This is slow. It also meant that I couldn't really have any help, even if I'd been willing to ask for it. It's not like I could just pack all the boxes and get people to help me move them. So here I am. I can't stand up. And the house is half-moved and nothing is packed, because... there is no packing. And they need to start the remodel tomorrow or Friday.
Oh, and I have a paper due on Sunday, and I'm supposed to be doing a bunch of revisions to the Social Studies curriculum.
No stress here. No sir!
My knee popped so loudly that the girls riding the honda 20' away said they could hear it.
It hurt, yes, but not so badly that I was dying. I'd heard and felt the pop, but after prodding at it and testing the forward-backward movement, my knee seemed to be functional. So I tried to get up.
That was a bad idea. My knee buckled. It did not buckle in the traditional forward-backward sort of way in which a knee is meant to move. It buckled to the side. And down I went.
So the girls on the honda called the clinic, and a little boy got hold of Cody's leash (this was not his fault) and another young woman brought him home for me, and...
After a bit, the girls on the honda came back and they got me up on the honda and brought me to the clinic, since the health aids hadn't gotten to me, yet.
I had 3 health aids taking care of me. (And, may I just say, it is rather disconcerting to disrobe in front of people who were once your students.)
And my blood pressure, which is typically around 100/60 was 135/90, but my other vitals were unremarkable. We remarked that bruising was already beginning to show, but there wasn't a lot of swelling. The pain was at a 4, but seemed to be increasing. We rested. We iced. We compressed. We elevated. I was given ibuprofen and crutches and a follow-up for Friday. (And a TDAP vaccination, because my records showed that I was overdue.) And we all concurred that I had dislocated my knee, but it was back in position, now.
Except. Except I accidentally put weight on it again, on the way home, and that same sideways buckling happened. Not with any unusual stress, just at the very first moment of putting weight on the foot. So... I went to my friends at Just Answer, and said: "Heal on its own? Or go to Anchorage?"
The nice doctor at Just Answer says: 95% chance completely torn collateral ligament. Go to Anchorage in the next week or so. It doesn't have to be right this minute, as long as you keep RICEing, keep the weight entirely off, don't twist the limb at all... and so forth.
Yes. Well. That was, um. Not part of my plan for next week. I have contacted the dog boarding place. I suspect Cody may be staying there for a while. At least he likes it, there. I think I found a place for TK. I think I found an orthopedist, but I can't contact them until tomorrow.
The worst bit is the timing.
I was smack dab in the middle of moving out of this house for a couple weeks. Everything has to be out, because they're remodeling the inside. Which is it's own mess, but. Yeah. In the middle. But I only have a few big boxes and a couple small boxes for the process. So what I had been doing is filling a box, carrying it to where it goes, emptying it, and then coming back for the next load. This is slow. It also meant that I couldn't really have any help, even if I'd been willing to ask for it. It's not like I could just pack all the boxes and get people to help me move them. So here I am. I can't stand up. And the house is half-moved and nothing is packed, because... there is no packing. And they need to start the remodel tomorrow or Friday.
Oh, and I have a paper due on Sunday, and I'm supposed to be doing a bunch of revisions to the Social Studies curriculum.
No stress here. No sir!