Bad Things Come in 3s : The Daily (sorta) Journal of an Injured Knee - Day 14

Well, it's been 2 weeks and most of the swelling in the left knee has gone down. There's still a puffy area on the right side of the knee that doesn't seem to want to leave. I still can't bend my knee completely, but I went to practice last night, did a few sprints and for the most part it was ok. I just can't drive my left knee up very high when I run, which leaves me with this lopsided gate, but at least it doesn't hurt too much. Most of my bruising has now faded, and thankfully, no new ones have popped up. So I'm guessing another week before I'm 100% and that'll be just in time for the championships. Plus, we had planned a short ski trip right after the tournament during our winter break. Hopefully I'll be ok for that as well, and I also hope the ski stations will get some snow by then. I was outside in a t-shirt on Sunday it was so warm. It felt like late spring, the complete opposite to what's been blanketing the east coast in the States. It's been so warm here, daffodils and other flowers are blooming. The weather is crazy.

Anyway, thank you all for stopping by and checking up on me and my knee. I think I've taken enough pictures of my knee caps to last me and everyone else a lifetime, lol! 

Have a great week everyone and be safe!!!

Bad Things Come in 3s : The Daily (sorta) Journal of an Injured Knee - Day 3-6

I didn't get a chance to post over the weekend because I had fourteen people come over for lunch on Sunday. It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun. Thankfully my knee held up but it reminded me all day (with a dull ache), that things are still not 100%. Walking around in heels probably didn't help either. Today, I'll be convalescing in my slippers and drinking tea. 

Anyway, here's what my knee (or should I say 'leg') has been doing these past few days...

Day 4: The big itch. 

My leg has been itching me all day and not in the 'pass the ointment I have a weird  rash' kind of way. The muscles itch/ache. It's not easy to explain, but I just have this need to stretch my leg muscles and to lock my knee out and run. But I don't of course because, duh, it hurts when I do. But still, despite the pain, I itch to stretch out the muscles. *sigh*

Oh and yes, that is my cat Oska, inspecting my toes....

"Stop that. That tickles!"

^..^   "Meow."  

"What do you mean my feet stink?!" *shoo--*

^..^  *Hisss*

:P



Day 5: Down you go.

Well, it looks like I'm at the green / yellow stage (yeah!) around my knee. Hopefully that means things are almost fixed in there. As for the swelling, it's gone down a lot more too. However, I'm getting some funky dark colors appearing all the way down the inside of my leg. My initial injury was to the side of the knee, but the contusion extends much further. I guess when I got hit, I must have broken enough blood vessels to extravasate ;) blood all the way down my leg. The leg still itches but a little less than yesterday. On the plus side, I can go up the stairs just about normally now. 

Day 6: What the hell is this?!

I've got new bruises popping up on the top of my leg down my shins. 

What the hell? 

When did this happen? I was on my feet all day yesterday and I wonder if that has anything to do with the arrival with these new guests? *sigh*

Bad Things Come in 3s : The Daily Journal of an Injured Knee - Day 3

Day 3: The turning point...turning purple!

Three seems to be the magic number. 

 

The swelling has gone down some and I can finally bend my knee to about 90°, which makes getting dressed in the mornings less of a circus act. Thumbs up. It also makes getting in and out of the car a lot easier. Double thumbs up! The only thing that still makes my teeth mash however, are the stairs, especially going down.... I still have a bit more healing to do.

But the exciting thing is I'm finally getting some discoloration coming up to the surface, notably dark purples and blues. OOOooooo. Exciting stuff  I tell ya. All that got me thinking about bruises and contusions in general. Like, what's going on in there and why does it change colors? I know the gist of it, but I wanted to find out in more detail. So, I went to our good friend Wikipedia who explains bruises as:

"A bruise (layman's term), also called a contusion (medical term), is a type of hematoma of tissue in which capillaries and sometimes venules are damaged by trauma, allowing blood to seep, hemorrhage, or extravasate into the surrounding interstitial tissues. Not blanching on pressure, bruises can involve capillaries at the level of skin, subcutaneous tissue, muscle, or bone."

Well ok then.... I hope I didn't bruise the bone, that sounds really bad.....

But what about the changes in color, what's up with that? So, I dug around a bit more (on the internet, not my knee) and found this interesting (and most importantly, short) video on the IFLScience website that explains why bruises change color. And according to the video, my white blood cells are separating the heloglobin into heme and globin which gives it the purpleish-blue color. Cool stuff indeed. I'm looking forward to the biliverdin or as I like to call it, the green stage.... :D 

So if you're curious like me, have a go at the video, and Happy Friday everyone! 

 You guys ever have a really bad contusion that changed colors like this? Remember how long it took to heal? 

 

Bad Things Come in 3s : The Daily Journal of an Injured Knee - Day 2

This is Day 2 of my injured knee.  

Yaaaawwnnnn. 

I was hoping for something more exciting to show you guys, but the only thing to report is that my knee is still swollen, still hot, and is still a blotchy redish brown color. Apparently, all the cool stuff is happening on the inside. However, there has been a noticeable decrease in pain (thankfully), especially when I walk. I've up-graded from hobbling around to walking like a pirate with a pegleg. Try getting your pants on in the morning with a pegleg. Let me tell you, it's a challenge. You know what else is a challenge? Getting in and out of the car. I manage, but it takes a Herculean effort and about as much grace as a brontosaurus. Reminds me of when I was pregnant with my son.... 

Anyway, I've also remarked a few more bruises that I hadn't noticed before. In addition to busting my knee, I apparently also bruised my right side along my rib cage, the bridge of my nose, the tip of my right ear and my left arm between my wrist and elbow.  (-_-)

On a more positive note, I now have a new found respect for my chunky thunder thighs. I've always been a bit self conscious of my legs, especially from the knees up. My thighs are, and have always been, stocky and muscly. Instead of a thigh gap, I have thigh flaps. But, I think the added muscle around my knee helped protect the joint from a lot more damage. Things could have been much worse had I had skinny little legs. So, from now on I've decided to give my chunky muscly legs a break and show them a bit more love and appreciation. :) 

That's it for today, I (and probably you) should get back to writing.... ;)  XOXO

  

Bad Things Come in Threes : The Daily Journal of an Injured Knee

Monday, I talked a bit about the string of bad luck that’s been shadowing me since November when my computer died, followed by December when my dishwasher broke down just before the holidays.  And, some of you warned me that bad things come in threes so I'd best watch out. Well guess what? The very next day, I injured my knee during Ultimate practice. During a game, my teammate and I both went for the disc, didn’t see each other, and we collided in spectacular form. I took a wrist to the face and his knee slammed into the side of my knee and we both hit the ground. It hurt like a b****. He was fine, but I got the wind knocked out of me, and within minutes my left knee started to swell. !%ù*!!&###!!!

The drive back home after practice, sucked. It’s the only time I’ve ever wished my car was an automatic; I cringed every time I had to push down on the clutch…. Anyway, the next day I went to my doctor. He did a series of tests on my leg and knee and luckily, it looks worse than it actually is. There’s no damage to the knee joint and none of the major ligaments around the knee seem damaged. I’ve basically suffered a deep muscle contusion and have to rest my knee for at least 2 weeks. So if things go well, I should be back to practice in time for the Regional Championship in mid-February. Phew.   

In the mean time, I figured it’d be fun to document the changes in my knee as it goes through the healing process. I love experiments and I’m totally looking forward to seeing it change funky colors as the swelling goes down.

Here is my knee on Day 1:  It doubled in size. 

It's hard to tell from this angle, but the injured knee is the light brownish one on the right (your right). It looks like the swelling swallowed my knee cap. My good knee is the one on the left of the picture that actually looks like a knee cap with a few old scars in the center. 

 

Here is another shot from my perspective. You can see the swelling better on the left and the red spot where I got hit. 

Fun times y'all. Fun times.

As you can see from the pictures, my knee looks like it’s 9 months pregnant. I don’t walk, I hobble. Going up and down stairs is complicated as I can bend my knee only slightly. The skin over the injured area is shiny and smooth due to the swelling and it’s hot to the touch. It feels like my knee has a temperature. I wish I had one of those fish tank thermometer strips to see how hot it really is. There isn’t too much color around the knee, some redness a some light brown discoloration, but nothing overly interesting. 

By the end of the day, my lower back was aching because I’ve had to shift my weight to my good leg. The throbbing in my knee also made it difficult to fall asleep so I took a couple of pain killers. Thank you Advil PM.

So there you have it, my string of bad luck is officially OVER! YOU HEAR ME! I’m done, got my three bad things so now life can you please leave me the hell alone?
 

Thanks for stopping in everyone. I'll do my best to visit you all when I can. I'll be back tomorrow for another day in the life of an injured knee. 

In the mean time, be good and be safe! :D