Well, good news
The knee's not broken. It's not torn. It's just arthritic. And hellabruised (should that have a hyphen? Hmmm.). The technical diagnosis currently is patellofemoral arthralgia and femoral contusion. Basically, pain of the femur and kneecap area and a bruised femur. Yes, you can bruise bone. And, let me tell you, it hurts like a MoFo. And, according to Dr. JP (as opposed to his brother, Dr. SP, also an orthopedist - they practice together, isn't that cute?), it'll take 6 weeks for the bruising to fully subside and at least 3 weeks of 3 times a week physical therapy for my knee to feel any better. And, as far as the fix for the arthritis...arthritic joints at 26 is so pathetic...some type of anti-inflammatory pain killer and that Osteo Bi-Flex stuff you see on those commercials. The stuff with the Glucosamine and chondroitin to lubricate your cartilage. Because I definitely need some since there's been grinding going on in there.
Went to see an orthotist today. She fitted me with a spiffy knee brace that has all these straps and a hole for my kneecap. See, my lovely knees are what they call in the biz "hyper-mobile." Basically, you can manipulate my knee joint every which way. I can hyper-extend my knees to the point where I look kind of like a flamingo. My feet have always been super-flat so I have knees that bow inwards. And, the Drs. P favorite part - my kneecaps are seriously movable. Normal people have kneecaps that move a little bit, like maybe a 1/4", when their leg is straight. Mine can slide at least 1/2" in all directions. Which is not good. Then again, my elbows can bend to about 10 degrees past straight, too. I love to freak people out with that one. The good part is, with this new brace, my knee doesn't grind, or pop, or anything for the first time in YEARS. I am seriously thinking about getting one for my right leg since it's just as bad. I'll look silly in summer, but whatever. To be able to walk without pain will be GREAT.
Made my first PT appointment. Three times a week. Wow. And, in the meantime until my appointment, JP has assigned me leg exercises. It's a running joke with the P's that no matter what kind of injury you have, they'll assign you quad lifts to fix it. Especially SP. He's very big on the quad lifts. With the PT going on so much, I have gotten JP to write me a note to have me off work until the last week in February. That way I can get my PT done and hopefully be able to stand better before going back to work to stand for hours on end.
I am excited, however, because I'm going to see Heather in a few weeks. From the 12th-19th. A whole week together. I can't wait. And, with my new giant knee brace, I'm going to see if they'll let me pre-board so I can get the good spot in the emergency row at the window on the left side so I can stretch out my leg and have it be protected from people bumping into it. I love that spot. See, I trust myself to open the window in the case of an emergency... I don't trust anyone else on that aircraft as far as I could throw them (except for the flight crew, of course - though some of those are questionable, too). Especially those business traveler bastards who only sit in the exit row for the leg room and who seem like they have absolutely no intention of doing anything useful in an emergency. On a recent flight to St. Louis Mom and I encountered one of these assholes. She and I had already taken the window and middle seats of the left side emergency row. On Southwest aircraft, there is a seat on the right side that HAS NO SEAT IN FRONT OF IT. The bastard decided that he wanted to sit next to Mom. Well, she's claustrophobic enough on planes. She doesn't need to be squished in between me and some giant. I nicely pointed out that he'd have all the leg room he could ever need if he moved to the other side. He refused. I explained that Mom and I were flying to see my sick sister in St. Louis and we really wanted to sit together, but Mom was claustrophobic and it was a little much to have him sitting there when there was a spot across the aisle. Still refused to move. So we decided to move two rows up. And then we talked very loudly about how rude he was for a good fifteen minutes. What happened to chivalry? Really? I rarely see it anymore. And only in Texas. Everywhere else everyone is increasingly rude. That sucks.
Anyway... Oh. Also was able to get an appointment with a new psychiatrist. This is very good since the current one is SUCH AN AMAZING PRICK. My sister used to see him before she moved to St. Louis. In a letter he sent me regarding the fact that I had missed a couple of appointments and hadn't seen him in a couple of months (one of those because I was in St. Louis taking care of said sister) he actually confused the two of us and mentioned something that didn't happen to me, but actually happened to her. Now that's not cool. And he was acting WAY too much like my father, and there's no way I'm going to deal with that every month. I already have to deal with my real father on a way too frequent basis. I don't need other caretakers being bastardly, too. So I've found this new female doc who I'm hoping will work out better. The woman I talked to on the mental health line of my health insurance knew who she was and said she was always busy and she heard good things about her. So I'm hopeful and cautiously optimistic. We'll see on the 20th.
Must go eat lunch and then bring Mom her pills to work. Don't want to be without your medications for over 8 hours. That would be BAD.
BTW. I have "I come from a land down under..." in my head. I had some other song I had heard on the radio in my head playing over and over, but it was getting annoying because I don't really know the words and the guy's voice is kinda whiny. It's one of those country cross-overs. I can't remember the artist's name right now. Anyway, any time I have a song like that stuck in my head, Heather sings, "I come from a land down under" to me. Instantly resets my internal jukebox to something that at least I know the words to. And now it's become a running joke. So I used the trick on myself and it worked. Though it's much better when she does it.
Oh, one more thing: What the HELL was up with that thing that Ellen Pompeo was wearing at the SAG awards the other night? Did she just fly in from Tanzania? And she didn't even make CoJo's worst dressed list. Nor has she shown up on GoFugYourself.com yet. I don't know what's happening to the world if it lets this kind of fashion tragedy slide by.
Went to see an orthotist today. She fitted me with a spiffy knee brace that has all these straps and a hole for my kneecap. See, my lovely knees are what they call in the biz "hyper-mobile." Basically, you can manipulate my knee joint every which way. I can hyper-extend my knees to the point where I look kind of like a flamingo. My feet have always been super-flat so I have knees that bow inwards. And, the Drs. P favorite part - my kneecaps are seriously movable. Normal people have kneecaps that move a little bit, like maybe a 1/4", when their leg is straight. Mine can slide at least 1/2" in all directions. Which is not good. Then again, my elbows can bend to about 10 degrees past straight, too. I love to freak people out with that one. The good part is, with this new brace, my knee doesn't grind, or pop, or anything for the first time in YEARS. I am seriously thinking about getting one for my right leg since it's just as bad. I'll look silly in summer, but whatever. To be able to walk without pain will be GREAT.
Made my first PT appointment. Three times a week. Wow. And, in the meantime until my appointment, JP has assigned me leg exercises. It's a running joke with the P's that no matter what kind of injury you have, they'll assign you quad lifts to fix it. Especially SP. He's very big on the quad lifts. With the PT going on so much, I have gotten JP to write me a note to have me off work until the last week in February. That way I can get my PT done and hopefully be able to stand better before going back to work to stand for hours on end.
I am excited, however, because I'm going to see Heather in a few weeks. From the 12th-19th. A whole week together. I can't wait. And, with my new giant knee brace, I'm going to see if they'll let me pre-board so I can get the good spot in the emergency row at the window on the left side so I can stretch out my leg and have it be protected from people bumping into it. I love that spot. See, I trust myself to open the window in the case of an emergency... I don't trust anyone else on that aircraft as far as I could throw them (except for the flight crew, of course - though some of those are questionable, too). Especially those business traveler bastards who only sit in the exit row for the leg room and who seem like they have absolutely no intention of doing anything useful in an emergency. On a recent flight to St. Louis Mom and I encountered one of these assholes. She and I had already taken the window and middle seats of the left side emergency row. On Southwest aircraft, there is a seat on the right side that HAS NO SEAT IN FRONT OF IT. The bastard decided that he wanted to sit next to Mom. Well, she's claustrophobic enough on planes. She doesn't need to be squished in between me and some giant. I nicely pointed out that he'd have all the leg room he could ever need if he moved to the other side. He refused. I explained that Mom and I were flying to see my sick sister in St. Louis and we really wanted to sit together, but Mom was claustrophobic and it was a little much to have him sitting there when there was a spot across the aisle. Still refused to move. So we decided to move two rows up. And then we talked very loudly about how rude he was for a good fifteen minutes. What happened to chivalry? Really? I rarely see it anymore. And only in Texas. Everywhere else everyone is increasingly rude. That sucks.
Anyway... Oh. Also was able to get an appointment with a new psychiatrist. This is very good since the current one is SUCH AN AMAZING PRICK. My sister used to see him before she moved to St. Louis. In a letter he sent me regarding the fact that I had missed a couple of appointments and hadn't seen him in a couple of months (one of those because I was in St. Louis taking care of said sister) he actually confused the two of us and mentioned something that didn't happen to me, but actually happened to her. Now that's not cool. And he was acting WAY too much like my father, and there's no way I'm going to deal with that every month. I already have to deal with my real father on a way too frequent basis. I don't need other caretakers being bastardly, too. So I've found this new female doc who I'm hoping will work out better. The woman I talked to on the mental health line of my health insurance knew who she was and said she was always busy and she heard good things about her. So I'm hopeful and cautiously optimistic. We'll see on the 20th.
Must go eat lunch and then bring Mom her pills to work. Don't want to be without your medications for over 8 hours. That would be BAD.
BTW. I have "I come from a land down under..." in my head. I had some other song I had heard on the radio in my head playing over and over, but it was getting annoying because I don't really know the words and the guy's voice is kinda whiny. It's one of those country cross-overs. I can't remember the artist's name right now. Anyway, any time I have a song like that stuck in my head, Heather sings, "I come from a land down under" to me. Instantly resets my internal jukebox to something that at least I know the words to. And now it's become a running joke. So I used the trick on myself and it worked. Though it's much better when she does it.
Oh, one more thing: What the HELL was up with that thing that Ellen Pompeo was wearing at the SAG awards the other night? Did she just fly in from Tanzania? And she didn't even make CoJo's worst dressed list. Nor has she shown up on GoFugYourself.com yet. I don't know what's happening to the world if it lets this kind of fashion tragedy slide by.