You fracture me, your hands on me
The story begins at Day 1. The short version: I ruptured knee ligaments skiing, and am currently mostly sitting on the sofa. Day 14 (Friday) is a trip to the doctor to hear the results of my MRI. Contains medical details, though not especially gory ones.
For the first time, I attempted my whole working day sitting at the table rather than sitting on the sofa with my laptop on my lap. There's a few advantages to the table: I can more easily plug in my trackball, instead of the not-terribly-effective trackpad that's built into my laptop; I can have a generally more ergonomic set up; I don't keep losing my pen between cushions. However, sitting up properly on a chair has been difficult, and I'm still only managing it with my feet propped up on a biscuit tin footstool. I need more practice before I head back to the office.
The day was also considerably enlivened by a drive-by visitation from ebee who arrived with a sack of exciting lunch products. We lunched, and she made my tea in a real mug with a handle (rather than the lidded flask I make tea in so I can carry it about). Drinking out of a proper mug during the day seems like a real treat.
All week, though, I'd been looking forward to Friday evening. Friday evening I get to go and see the specialist again. I get to hear what the MRI said. I get a timeline for when I can expect things to start mending. As I mentioned to Ebee, I was trying hard to not to pin my hopes on getting All The Answers. It was entirely possible the specialist was just going say "let's give it another ten days".
He didn't. He said, as I entered, "well, you've done the Full Monty, haven't you?" I guess that's one of those technical medical terms.
His "90% certain" diagnosis from our previous appointment proved correct: ruptured medial collateral ligament, completely snapped anterior cruciate ligament. Although the MCL rupture has been upgraded from grade 2 to grade 3 (so more ruptured-er). He scrolled through the MRI images on a screen, pointing at things. That fuzzy patch, that's where your ACL should be.
That white patch, that's fluid. Now, I never did any human biology at school. I don't know what a knee-joint is supposed to look like. That fluid's something that's meant to be there, right?
"No, that's where it bled."
Oh.
And he showed me the fracture in the top of my tibia, and the bruise on my fibula (you can bruise a bone? who knew?) And another fuzzy patch, which is damage to the previously-unmentioned lateral ligaments. On the plus side, the MRI did show that the meniscus of my knee isn't damaged, so no immediate corrective surgery required.
I mentioned that my other leg seemed to be struggling. OK, we'll get that one MRI'd as well just to be on the safe side. We discussed physio, and where would be convenient for me to be treated. He dictated a letter to them, and I need to get in touch next week to make an appointment. And I need to make an appointment for the new MRI, and I need to make an appointment to discuss the results. I need to call BUPA to get those appointments authorised. I need to get the sicknote stamped at the front desk on the way out. I began to wish I'd got my pen and paper out earlier; there is a lot of admin involved in being injured.
He offered me a print-out of my MRI report, and gave me a little chit to exchange at radiography reception. The receptionist complimented me on the number of pages in my MRI report; I'm unsure whether to be distressed or obscurely proud. Having read through the report, I think it's safe to say that I have a chronic case of extremely long words. Parts of the report amused me; no-one wants to be told that their popliteus tendon is unremarkable :)
Anyway, the overall prognosis hasn't really changed. In 4-6 weeks I should be walking again, although possibly only in straight lines. If I want to be able to go round corners as well, then we're probably looking at ACL reconstruction surgery. Which will, delightfully, put me back on crutches for 2-3 weeks and then require another bout of of rehab. physio. The long-range forecast for returning to "contact sports" after reconstruction surgery would be 9 months. I have decided that I am probably defining rapper as a contact sport, meaning I might be back dancing around a year after I fell over :(
Heroes of the day: Ebee, Mr Specialist, ChrisC.
For the first time, I attempted my whole working day sitting at the table rather than sitting on the sofa with my laptop on my lap. There's a few advantages to the table: I can more easily plug in my trackball, instead of the not-terribly-effective trackpad that's built into my laptop; I can have a generally more ergonomic set up; I don't keep losing my pen between cushions. However, sitting up properly on a chair has been difficult, and I'm still only managing it with my feet propped up on a biscuit tin footstool. I need more practice before I head back to the office.
The day was also considerably enlivened by a drive-by visitation from ebee who arrived with a sack of exciting lunch products. We lunched, and she made my tea in a real mug with a handle (rather than the lidded flask I make tea in so I can carry it about). Drinking out of a proper mug during the day seems like a real treat.
All week, though, I'd been looking forward to Friday evening. Friday evening I get to go and see the specialist again. I get to hear what the MRI said. I get a timeline for when I can expect things to start mending. As I mentioned to Ebee, I was trying hard to not to pin my hopes on getting All The Answers. It was entirely possible the specialist was just going say "let's give it another ten days".
He didn't. He said, as I entered, "well, you've done the Full Monty, haven't you?" I guess that's one of those technical medical terms.
His "90% certain" diagnosis from our previous appointment proved correct: ruptured medial collateral ligament, completely snapped anterior cruciate ligament. Although the MCL rupture has been upgraded from grade 2 to grade 3 (so more ruptured-er). He scrolled through the MRI images on a screen, pointing at things. That fuzzy patch, that's where your ACL should be.
That white patch, that's fluid. Now, I never did any human biology at school. I don't know what a knee-joint is supposed to look like. That fluid's something that's meant to be there, right?
"No, that's where it bled."
Oh.
And he showed me the fracture in the top of my tibia, and the bruise on my fibula (you can bruise a bone? who knew?) And another fuzzy patch, which is damage to the previously-unmentioned lateral ligaments. On the plus side, the MRI did show that the meniscus of my knee isn't damaged, so no immediate corrective surgery required.
I mentioned that my other leg seemed to be struggling. OK, we'll get that one MRI'd as well just to be on the safe side. We discussed physio, and where would be convenient for me to be treated. He dictated a letter to them, and I need to get in touch next week to make an appointment. And I need to make an appointment for the new MRI, and I need to make an appointment to discuss the results. I need to call BUPA to get those appointments authorised. I need to get the sicknote stamped at the front desk on the way out. I began to wish I'd got my pen and paper out earlier; there is a lot of admin involved in being injured.
He offered me a print-out of my MRI report, and gave me a little chit to exchange at radiography reception. The receptionist complimented me on the number of pages in my MRI report; I'm unsure whether to be distressed or obscurely proud. Having read through the report, I think it's safe to say that I have a chronic case of extremely long words. Parts of the report amused me; no-one wants to be told that their popliteus tendon is unremarkable :)
Anyway, the overall prognosis hasn't really changed. In 4-6 weeks I should be walking again, although possibly only in straight lines. If I want to be able to go round corners as well, then we're probably looking at ACL reconstruction surgery. Which will, delightfully, put me back on crutches for 2-3 weeks and then require another bout of of rehab. physio. The long-range forecast for returning to "contact sports" after reconstruction surgery would be 9 months. I have decided that I am probably defining rapper as a contact sport, meaning I might be back dancing around a year after I fell over :(
Heroes of the day: Ebee, Mr Specialist, ChrisC.