R Knee, Impact wound / trauma
2012-07-14 – 2012-08-19
Grade: 3
Fell during the ET. Immediate impact caused significant pain and took me a few minutes to get up. We put icyhot on it right away and took some ibuprofen. I used the stick I tripped on as a walking stick after that. Did mostly walking after that and had no trouble doing that. I occasionally tried to shuffle. This wasn't comfortable but I was trying to move faster.
About 90 minutes later I looked at my knee and it had a golfball in it. I went to walk and could no longer bend it. The race was over. I hobbled to the road and got picked up. Rested, iced and elevated ASAP.
7/15 Swelling increased a little over night. Now it is swollen all around the knee. Still resting, elevating Icing and Vitamin I.
7/16 Status quo
7/17 Significant increase in range of motion. Feeling better. Doctor agreed that it was bursitis but said there was some additional inflammation as well. He drained it and gave me a cortison shot. Knee was very sore from the procedure. Doctor said to rest until it feels better and be careful of impact.
7/28 Spent significant time walking around all day using a cane for some support. Knee felt fine initially but started swelling as the day went on. Significant pain at night and had a hard time falling asleep.
7/29 Still in pain. Limited my walking as much as possible and tried to ice as much as possible. Doesn't seem to be working.
7/30 Didn't go to work. EXTREME Pain even while laying in bed. Took some hydrocodone. Went to the doctor to find out it is infected. Taking antibiotics and more hydrocodone as needed. Anytime I stand up I can feel the blood rush down my leg and there is no where for it to go. Resorted to a rolling chair to get between the bed and the bathroom. Thank goodness for the olympics.
8/1 Back to the dr to make sure it is getting better. It doesn't feel or look any better to me but he said it was good. He said to start heating but when I heated blood (old and new) started flowing out. This worried me so I called the PE, they told me not to heat anymore (later found out that letting the blood drain out would have been good and sped up healing time)
8/2 Pain subsided a very little bit but still very painful. Still feel painful blood flow to the leg when I stand up.
8/6 Went to the dr again. Starting to walk around a bit but if I am standing for a while it hurts. Swelling is becoming manageable but still have an extremely limited range of motion.
8/9 Dr B, don't remember everything he said but he told me to start using it and get the blood flowing which would help decrease swelling by getting more blood there to pull the old blood away. He said using it won't injure it more because there is no injury just swelling. Just have to be careful of the pressure build up.
8/12 Walked around VT campus. Limited motion but seemed to do ok. A little bit of pressure build up.
8/16 Have been going to the gym regularly. Went to the dr today. He was not very helpful just looked at it. There is still a small bit of fluid hanging around the kneecap limiting motion. Not sure how long this will hang around.
8/19 Lots of activities in WV. Leg is comfortable but still a little weak. I can see a significant difference in the muscles between my legs.
Careful getting drained and a cortisone shot. Consider avoiding it if possible. Watch for infection and don't let it get too bad. My knee was probably getting red before it started swelling. I could have recovered MUCH faster if I had caught it earlier!
Careful using heat during the infection. If the wound starts bleeding you don't want new blood to be coming out but getting the old blood out is good. BE CAREFUL but try and let it drain.
Heat/ice combo worked well on my knee. My knee actually healed quite a bit on its own before getting in drained. Probably could have let it work the rest out on its own.
Note that for the infection I was able to "exercise" even when I couldn't really to help decrease swelling. There was no injury to worry about. Just swelling and pressure.