Stuck on the Couch

Well shit. I broke my knee. Well, I don’t know for sure but here is the story:

I had been going to the gym for a week. I had been doing the treadmill and using all of the facilities and was just, in general, loving my gym. I got out of the house, it made me feel better, and I was doing something good for me. I had the best day ever at the gym just the day before my knee got injured. I went later in the evening, walked on the treadmill, forced myself to stop after 45 minutes (I was loving the endorphin rush) and then went and sat in the sauna for about 20 minutes. OMG! What a great way to finish a work out. After my shower, I hopped in the car and floated home. I walked in with this huge shit eating grin on my face and when Michael saw it he asked, “good work out?” only the best work out ever!

The next day I had an appt with the personal trainer. We were going to be doing upper body. I started on the bike for 15 minutes. Then we went to the weights to work out. We ended up at the free weights and I started doing some shoulder work. In between sets he had me do jumping jacks. I got through the first set just fine. The second set of jumping jacks however, is when it happened. I was supposed to do 15 of them and I got to number 10 and my knee popped and I just about hit the floor. I stopped and told him what happened and he said, “Huh, that’s odd. Does it hurt?” Well it didn’t so we just kept going…except that I refused to do any more jumping jacks. I finished the upper body workout and then we headed back up the stairs to do the ab part of the training. I noticed at this time that if I extended my leg all the way out, it wouldn’t support any weight…so I didn’t do that. I held my leg at an angle, made it up the stairs and finished the ab workout. From there I did another 15 minutes on the treadmill increasing the incline and speed every 5minutes. After that I went and stretched, again noticing how my knee would give out if I stood a certain way.

It wasn’t until I was getting in the car that I thought maybe I really hurt it. It is my left knee, which is the leg that supports the weight as I get into the car. Well, it gave out but I pulled myself into the car with the steering wheel and Jesus Handles. I got home and barely made it up the 3 steps to get into the house. I called the Dr on the way to Patient first and they told me that I couldn’t get an appt at the dr office that day but I could go in on Monday. Well this is on Tuesday and I wasn’t about to wait a week to have my leg looked at. I told the receptionist that I was going to be seen that day whether it was at the emergency room or at Patient first and they needed to decide which one to send me to. LOL. By the time they got back to me and told me that I was approved to go to Patient First, I was pulling into the parking lot.

They took x rays and could see no bone damage. By this time it was starting to ache a little and I was feeling like I had overstretched or pulled a tendon or ligament. Well soft tissue damage doesn’t show up on an x ray so I would need an MRI. After everything, I got a knee brace and crutches and was told to see the orthopedic surgeon. I made the appt to go to the orthopedic surgeon the next day and he poked and prodded me until I just about cried. He said that because my kneecap is locked in place and I have almost no movement with out pain, that I probably tore my meniscus. If that is the case, I would have to have surgery to fix the mangled mess. But they wouldn’t know until the MRI results came back. I got the films back from the MRI – I don’t know why he wanted films as opposed to a cd – and Michael and I have looked them over closely since my next appt isn’t until Tuesday.

Since we are not Drs we are obviously experts on the subject so we have concluded that there is no real damage. I just sprained my knee. The fact that it mechanically does not work is kind of beside the point. Lol. The fact that I can’t really move it at all or that it looks kinda deformed just supports the conclusion that it is just a sprain. It will heal on it’s own if I just keep using it and ignore the pain.

That being said, I have been sitting on my ass on this couch for the past 3 days. I have a pillow under my knee and have the recliner part of the couch up. I am surfing, texting, knitting, cross stitching, sleeping and bitching. Emphasis on the bitching, ha ha. The only good part now is that if I go insane, I cant get up to kill anyone!