A few years ago, I fell down the stairs and damaged my left knee, both ankles and my right wrist, and was left with a slightly weak left knee with a twinge. Tuesday two weeks ago, I slipped on the ice in the snowy weather, and hurt my left knee some more, but I strapped it up can carried on, and then on Friday I tried running for a bus, felt something go, and realised I had really hurt my left knee. I spent that Friday hobbling around with a cane because I could hardly put weight on my leg, and even strapped up and not doing anything, it hurt.
Two ladies on two different busses insisted I should go to the Accident & Emergency room, but I didn't think it was serious enough to bother them with when they would have plenty of people more seriously injured in the ice and snow than I was. All weekend I tried really hard to rest it, and when I did go out, had to walk with the cane again because it was pretty painful walking with my weight actually on that knee. On Monday, I decided I'd had enough as it wasn't getting better on its own like the average sprain or whatnot, so I called the doctors. I got an appointment for Tuesday lunchtime, and it turned out that I had damaged my lateral collateral ligament (which the doctor kindly drew a diagram of, because I didn't do A Level anatomy and as such didn't know what it was.). I'm to keep it moving, but avoid putting unnecessary strain (especially going UP hills or stairwells, where I'm pushing upwards) and I'm booked to see the physiotherapist. I'm glad they didn't try and give me crutches, because I am useless at crutches, and when I went down the stairs and hurt my legs, it was falling off the crutches that both injured my wrist and worsened my legs! (Maybe "don't give the dyspraxic lady crutches" is in my notes now?)
I'm supposed to be at work on amended duties, according to the doctor, but when I explained, work thought it would be better that I just stayed home for the rest of the week. Yesterday I had to collect my sick note from the doctor's, which, because I am avoiding steep inclines, uneven ground and snow, turned what would usually be a 20 minute walk into over an hour each way on 3 busses in heavy snow (all with the cane). It was not fun.
It was interesting to note how random people talked to me (in a nice way! Not sexual harassment or bothering me about being a Goth! That's a treat in and of itself!) and I heard a lot of interesting stories about how other people had been injured (including a guy who dislocated his knee and knee-cap in car-crash, and a guy who had to have his leg pinned after a van knocked him off his motorbike!) and I felt glad that my knee would get better in a few weeks and that all these people were still alive to tell me about their nasty traffic accidents, etc. The chap in the car-wreck should have probably died, according to how he told it. I felt a bit embarrassed that I'd managed to hurt myself to the point where I can't walk around properly just because I fell on some ice. Ah well, I do have co-ordination and balance issues at the best of times; ice does not help these things.
I'm supposed to be at work on amended duties, according to the doctor, but when I explained, work thought it would be better that I just stayed home for the rest of the week. Yesterday I had to collect my sick note from the doctor's, which, because I am avoiding steep inclines, uneven ground and snow, turned what would usually be a 20 minute walk into over an hour each way on 3 busses in heavy snow (all with the cane). It was not fun.
It was interesting to note how random people talked to me (in a nice way! Not sexual harassment or bothering me about being a Goth! That's a treat in and of itself!) and I heard a lot of interesting stories about how other people had been injured (including a guy who dislocated his knee and knee-cap in car-crash, and a guy who had to have his leg pinned after a van knocked him off his motorbike!) and I felt glad that my knee would get better in a few weeks and that all these people were still alive to tell me about their nasty traffic accidents, etc. The chap in the car-wreck should have probably died, according to how he told it. I felt a bit embarrassed that I'd managed to hurt myself to the point where I can't walk around properly just because I fell on some ice. Ah well, I do have co-ordination and balance issues at the best of times; ice does not help these things.
The good news is that I now have plenty of time to work on my blog, so there will be quite a few updates shortly.
The bad news is that I am supposed to be doing a Kung Fu grading at the beginning of March, an this injury will likely mean I don't get to prepare for that, so I will probably have to delay taking my grading now until the autumn grading session (similar to what happened last year). I normally do two different styles of Kung Fu and Capoeira, but at the moment, it would only further injure my knee.
I'm sorry to hear of your injury. At least you know that, over the course of a few weeks, it should get better. Still, it had to be difficult using a cane in snow and ice and riding three buses. I'm guessing that's three buses back home as well.
ReplyDeleteGet well soon. Meanwhile, I'll be looking forward to your blogs.
It was actually two busses back, as I didn't need to make one of the changes on the route back, but that was still 5 busses, and lots of snow. I'm getting used to walking with a cane, but I tend to trip myself up with it, which doesn't help.
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