So Frustrated about my knee

Oh honey,
It just never stops for you does it? You poor soul. I hope Santa is real good to you and leaves you his sled and deer to drive you around.:p Seriously, I hope this gets better for you. Hang in.
Linda

Hey Stacey,

Ouch! Sorry your having such a rough go of it. Your doing a good job tring to keep up the pace but paying a toll for it. Take it easy on the knee over the weekend. You need to get that localized inflammation down before your kneefills up with fluid or worse yet, blood.

I banged my knee workin on a plane 24yrs ago, it got red and hot. I kept walking on it cause I was young and dumb. well, next thing I knew, the bursa filled with blood too thick to draw with a needle so the knee operation happened. And my first sign of CIDP or MMN. The RH peroneal became numb and stayed numb to this day. I alway attributed it to the massive swelling that occured, but it was what is now one of my conduction blocks. This was when I found my current Dr. of 24yrs. He saw me limping but had no appt. and took me in under his wing ever since.

Lesson being, a sore knee is nothing to mess around with. Baby it! All Weekend if necessary. No deep bending keep it staight as possible and elevated with ice, and if you can, take aleve or stronger anti inflammatory.
Thats what I would do. Get your result on Monday. Even if its not fractured
your not out of the woods until the inflammation goes down.

Good Luck KIDDO!

Plus if you did chip a bone and keep dancing around you run the risk of getting that little piece of bone lodged someplace where it can cause excruciating pain and/or damage. The warmth/heat is just the inflammation – you hurt something and your body is trying to fix it and so is sending lots of necessary ingrediants to that area. Tim is right, you don’t want it to get too swollen so using a bag of frozen peas off and on will help keep it under control. Peas are the best because they mould to the shape of your knee – get two bags and keep one in the freezer while the other is on your knee. Let it rest and heal this weekend if you can stand it, if you get hyper take a Benedryl and put a movie on – that will keep you seated. On Monday I expect you will hear back and they will either say “you bruised the bone”, “hairline fracture – stay off of it” or “come get an MRI” so they can see if something is torn or a piece of bone is where it shouldn’t be. Whatever they say, it’s just a small bump in the road and it’s also a good excuse for you to start carrying that cane – you did hurt yourself after all and people would expect you to need a cane or crutch or something.

I’m sorry you got beat up in your fall, I’ve done that to myself even before I got CIDP, now I have to be extra careful because my clumsiness has been magnified but I still don’t let it stop me from doing what I want. 🙂

Julie

P.S. I guess it’s implied but Yes, I’ve fallen and chipped bones in/around my knee before – a couple of times, most of the time it gets better on its own.

2years ago, rite before Thanksgiving, fell in the house and hit my knee on the bed frame. Managed to get up, find my walker and hobble into my resident ‘chair’. Where I sat until DH came home. Got literally hauled to a satellite ER and had the pictures taken. Chip of the knee cap-put in a leg imobiliser [lots of velcro!] and told to see doc ASAP. Got the orthopedic the next day where another X-ray was done [should be ‘glowing’?] and was told to do the ice and elevate thing.
Follow up visit two weeks after that? They found that I’d fractured the bone below the knee also-at the joint. In a wheelchair around the house and walker going out [rarely] for two more months, then PT. The PT really helped my overall CIDP balance problems more than the knee itself. I was overall upset as I’d had knee surgery on this same leg 4years before CIDP.
Remember always that hairline fractures usually don’t show up rite away on film. It takes the rebuilding of calcium into the cracks to show a bright white on those films.
If you can find a sports knee brace [the thick foam, w/supports at the knee and much softer than the imobilizers, get one. They don’t rub near as much and are much easier to adjust overall. Don’t despair. It WILL get better.

Stacy,
I agree with everything that has been said. I would suggest something like an Ace rap, an ice pack and keep the knee elevated and immobilized for the weekend. [I know easier said than done in your situation.]. I check out what was recommended for a knee injury – RICE (rest, ice, compression, and elevation). That is until you can get the x-ray read and get competent medical opinion.

I did something like you did back when I was young and foolish. Now that I am no longer young I am paying for with every step I take. Coupling that with the CIDP makes for a very interesting time. Let’s just say my hockey days are definitely over. :rolleyes:

that is a very good sign. Probably an overstretched tendon or cartilidge. Be careful how you walk, try and walk straight? Easier said than done, but once you get into bad walking and posture habits, well things compound on other issues and I would ask, no, DEMAND my docs for PT. You likely wouldn’t start until after the new year tho, once all the swelling goes down. PT can help you avoid keeping bad walking habits that compensate for the pain and can strengthen the surrounding muscles/tendons/cartiliges to adapt to any damage you mite have. Seeing a good orthopedic surgeon is a good bet – It was my ortho I had called for help – I by-passed my GP as I knew she’d just refer me to the ortho? DUH? The ortho knows knee joints better than any other doc, and since we have to walk? Well, go to the gurus…. Use your leg as much as possible, because if you don’t? You will lose what strength you have, if not lose some anyhow-BUT be cautious, if it protests, stop. Therefore, the PT stuff once you’re ready will help immensely. It can be like learning how to ‘walk’ all over again! I’ve done this three times so far [only one before CIDP, but a biggie] and I always keep in mind that docs don’t THINK of the PT! But, I’ve never had a doc say no to it when I’ve asked.
I won’t go into details about housekeeping with bum legs/feet tho…just that I did 1/2 the living room and napped, the other 1/2, another nap…etc. Washing the special dishes etc I try to do a week ahead and in bits. Lots of bits add up if you keep at it.
Do Lidoderm patches help with this hand pain at all? They can deaden things pretty well at times-tho, at others they don’t do a thing. Worth a try?
As others have said? NO deep knee bending? And, NO clumsiness are allowed for at least three weeks! Hope this all helps!