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