My Knee is a Bastard.

[SansDoute]

Well.
My weekend got off to a good start.

My knees are absolute bastards and I no longer want to talk to them.

My knee decided to dislocate and then was just too damn stubborn to pop back in.
I happened to bend at a bad angle while picking something up today which caused my right knee to travel around my leg in a clockwise direction. Not fun. It then decided that NO, it would not go back to its original position and so I tumbled to a seat near me with my hand grasping the patella as hard as I could.
I was alone and nowhere near a phone.
Luckily, 5 minutes later a woman walking her dog passed by me and stopped to help out.
I made the dumb decision to call a friend to take me to the hospital in the hopes that the knee would pop back so I could save on an ambulance (I was only 2 blocks away from one).
My friend took 15 minutes to get to my location, and in that time 1 other lady (an off-duty nurse) stopped by to help. She helped me from blacking out when I started to go into shock by lying me down safely on the ground. It was then we all worked out my knee was not going to be popping back any time soon, so my friend called an ambulance.
They took 10 minutes to arrive.

I must point out that Laughing Gas is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

This is where it gets worse.

My knee would not move. I blame my muscular thighs (which in turn allows me to blame my dad for passing them on to me).

In the ER a doctor came to see and asked me how I was doing. While he's doing this, one of the paramedics grasped my shoulders from behind me. And then they..

HELD ME DOWN WHILE THE DOCTOR TRIED TO YANK MY KNEE BACK INTO PLACE!!!!!

This took over 10 seconds to do. Stupid thighs.

I cried. I screamed. I clawed at both men.

Finally it popped back in. I laugh cried. I was congratulated by the rest off the staff on the floor for not swearing once.

Finally, I was given Codeine, fitted with a leg brace, and driven home by my friend.

Thank GOD I went for the extensive travel insurance before I came here.

So, yeah. I'm not liking this weekend.

How about you guys?

[Cazzi]

Oh boy.. lots of sympathy & cookies from me & I hope your recovery time isn't too long. Has physiotherapy been mentioned?

I've managed to compact the cartilage in mine more than once just walking, so kudos to you for not swearing, that must have taken some willpower
Anyway, after that, the weekend can only get better... surely?

[Green_Fairy]

oh bastardly knees...i know this saga all to well. my left knee likes to pop out of place just for the hell of it. i decided long ago that knees are the worst designed part of the body. hopefully your weekend sucks less than you expect and your week is even better!

[SansDoute]

oh bastardly knees...i know this saga all to well. my left knee likes to pop out of place just for the hell of it. i decided long ago that knees are the worst designed part of the body.

I have to agree with you here. This is the second time my knee has done this. Last time was 4 years ago when I fell over on a slippery floor. At least that time it popped back in by itself. I was directed to a physio close by, so I'm gonna start that really soon. Bad thing was that the doctor said if the physio doesn't work as well as it should I'll have to get a knee reconstruction done. If that's happening, it's gonna be back home in Australia so I could impose on my parents

On the plus side, my friend bought me McDonalds for dinner, and my boss said they could drive me to and from work if I require it.
The main bummer is that I have to put off gym for at least a few days, and when I go back I can only do core and upper body
So much for my 10kg fat loss goal before August.

[Green_Fairy]

wait...you work out? are your legs in good shape? that's weird that your knee would dislocate like that.
one of the worst things about knees is that if they go out...there's really not much you can do other than replace the whole damn thing. i'm gonna be gettin new knees eventually. my mom is going in for her third knee replacement this fall (first one was put in crooked) and my brother's going to need surgery in the next couple of years.
why someone doesn't just re-write the genetic code to make the knees better is beyond me...

[RootedPhoenix]

why someone doesn't just re-write the genetic code to make the knees better is beyond me...

Me too. Although, I want to know why they're so weird in the first place...

[SansDoute]

wait...you work out? are your legs in good shape? that's weird that your knee would dislocate like that.

Yeah. I live in the hilliest part of lower mainland B.C where I walk everywhere, and I've been doing PT weight sessions at a local gym 3 days a week.
My problem, which my whole family seems to suffer from, is that my Patella's pop in and out of their position every time my legs even slightly bend. It's just the way our bone structure seems to be.
I started building up my muscles around my knee to avoid any problems, but it had the downside of making my knee harder to push back into place when it dislocated. I just can't win.

[Green_Fairy]

yeah, that's the thing about building up your knee muscles...you gotta stay flexible, too. are you working out on your own or do you have a trainer? if you don't, you might just want to talk to one about things you can do to find that balance

[Lady Legira]

oh bastardly knees...i know this saga all to well. my left knee likes to pop out of place just for the hell of it. i decided long ago that knees are the worst designed part of the body. hopefully your weekend sucks less than you expect and your week is even better!

Tell me about it, my Right knee is slowly getting worse. I have a lot of lateral movement of the Patella and the cartilage is getting worse, my rather optimistic doctor called it softening the more practical one in the hospital called it degraded. So I'm going for more phisyo and if it gets worse called them again. Going to have to talk with the phisyo about stuff like controlling the pain and maybe trying to get into something that will strengthen the muscles (I'm thinking Karate since I have a interest in learning it).

[Rapscallion]

Diagnosed last year with osteo arthritis in the knees. Can honestly say this isn't fun.

Exercising the laterals (if I've remembered the name right - the muscles on the front of your thigh) is a good way to relieve pressure on your knees. No idea how that works, but if sat at a desk simply hold your foot up until you feel the burn, then repeat for a half-hour.

Sorbothane insoles - very impact absorbive. Can help, but not cheap. Check places such as outdoor adventure type stores.

Rapscallion

[r2cagle]

Owie.. Hope your week gets better.

[SansDoute]

I go to my first physio appointment tomorrow.
Hopefully there they will opt to change me from a full leg splint to a knee brace during the day. Still would have to have a leg splint to sleep in though.
On the plus side, I only had to have Codeine on the first day and just regular Tylenol since then, but only if the pain was too much.
Hurting myself was not in the budget at all, but work let me come back one day after (I sit down about 80% of the time anyway) and my parents are sending me sympathy money. That and medical insurance which is the best thing of all.

The funniest thing was, I remember being really embarrassed being wheeled into the ambulance despite the pain. I hate people looking at me.

[dutifuldaughter]

Sans Doute, I got two bastard knees as well (one has since been fixed surgically). Very similar situation. I know how awful that is.

And if you want embarassment, I can recommend being pantsless in front of a group of medical students while the orthopedic surgeon twiddles your kneecap and says "Look, I can dislocate it manually - it's just like twisting the cap off a beer bottle."

Good times. Take your drugs. Feel better.

[Magpie]

Physio is great for knees. It's possible that your muscles are unbalanced, so there might be one part of the muscle that's pulling the kneecap out of place, and if you work on the opposing muscle it will hopefully get better.