The day started out with me waking up at 7:30am to meet a client I had at 9:30. I woke up early just to take it slow so I don't have to rush to get out of the door. I had my official doctors appointment at the sports med clinic to see what was actually going on with my knee. While I was getting ready to leave for work Amber sent me a text message asking me if I had any plans for lunch. Yes, I had already packed my lunch for work but I never really get to spend time to spend with her and I want to spend more time with her. We get along really well and after all she is my sister now. So I changed my lunch plans so I could have plans with her.
So I woke up to train a client that I haven't seen in 2 weeks because she has been out of town. The workout was slow and mostly conversation but it was good to see her. It was our last PT session because she is moving to Houston on Thursday because she is going to med school. After the PT session I started to make my way over to the Sports Injury and Rehabilitation center where my sister works. (Yes, I will refer to her at my sister and not my sister-in-law). I sent her a text just to make sure that I was in the right place, but walked in anyway and asked if I was in the right place. One of the girls that works there recognized me and said I was in the right place. They went through my contact information just to make sure nothing was wrong. I had to fill out one extra form that dealt with allergies, medications, past health history, family health history, etc. Before I was done with that Amber was up at the front. I'm glad she was there because I was scared later about what was going to happen.
The finally called me back and took my weight. In the room the guy asked me about my knee, how it happened (which I was suprised he didn't know already since mostly everyone did) and where and when the "pain" occurs. So after this one of the doctors, not sure of her name, came and looked at my knee. She moved my patella (knee cap) around a little bit and told me some things that she was going to do were going to hurt, but there didn't. And of course she wanted to see if I felt like it was going to slip if pressure was placed on it in certain directions, attempt and fail. After she looked at my knee she said someone was going to come get me to take x-rays. She had me place a "skirt" and a "necklace" as she called it on me and then stood me up on a box and took two x-rays of the back of my knee and then layed me on a table to take one of the side of my knee.
After reviewing my x-rays Dr. Burroughs, the one that only Amber recommeds and trusts, came in to see me. He told me that it did look like the swelling in my knee was going down. Then he told me I had a couple different options.
Option 1:
I could keep taking the medicine and see if my body reabsorped all the fluid that had been produced from what had happened and go from there.
Option 2:
I could take the aggressive route and he could drain my knee of the extra fluid. Depending on the results of draining my knee depended on whether I would have to have an MRI.
Worse case scenario would be surgery!
He asked me some more questions about the impact and asked if I had twisted and hit the ground. I've gotten lucky because every time my knee cap pops out of place it automatically moves back in once my knee is straightened out. When Rocky hit me, I stayed on my feet! He determined that there wasn't any damage to any ligaments which is great, but he told me that there could either just be some torn cartilage or worse case was sheared cartilage.
The decision was hard to make, but I went with Option 2, to have my knee drained. Once I decided this, Dr. Burroughs told Amber to get everything ready. So Amber prepared the injection that would numb my knee for when he drained the fluid out, because having a needle in your knee for a couple of minutes would defintely hurt. And then the huge syringe that would hold the fluid that comes out of my knee. I wanted Amber in there to hold my hand just in case, more just for comfort than to hold my hand. Yes, I had a couple tears come out of me because I was scared of what the outcome would be, and Amber reassured me that everything was going to be okay.
The goods and bads of draining fluid around the knee. So there were two scenarios for draining my knee:
1) all the fluid is yellow which is good; and 2) the fluid has a little bit of blood in it which would result in an MRI.
So I watched Dr. Burroughs numb my knee and it honestly looked like the part where he injected me turned to ice on the inside, it looked yellow and frozen. After that he told me to lay back. Amber made some adjustments on the screen so he could see better. Next I would feel a little pinch/pressure. I felt that and he told Amber places to push on my knee in order to get all the fluid out. Amber did a very good job of disguising her face. After Dr. Burroughs was all down draining me knee he showed me all the fluid came out. I scenario three! There was no scenario three listed above, you're right because I didn't fall into any of those 2 other scenarios. So scenario 3 turned out that all that extra "fluid" in my knee was blood! I should have taken a picture of that...
I'm going to jump back for a little bit because while talking to Dr. Burroughs before deciding my options for my knee I asked him what kind of exercising I could do. My options for my legs...zero because a little bit of tightening of my muscles that's about it. No squating period, bodyweight or not, no runnning, cycling. So my legs are going to look like crap, and that I'm not happy about!
After getting my results from draining my knee I went up to the front to check and and they scheduled my MRI for Friday at 9:15am.
Amber and I went to lunch at Subway, I had a gift card. We talked about my knee and guys and things going on in our lives. We talked about her honeymoon and how she wanted kids. There was so many other things that I wanted to talk to her about that I just can't seem to bring up when we got together, eventually.
After leaving from lunch I headed over to there house to get my ice pack that I had left at the lake house the weekend of the wedding. I cried off and on all the way to their house about how my race session could possibly be over and how much that life of working out and racing had become such a part of me. I honestly don't know what I will do now that I can't do that. It's like a part of my life has been ripped from my and I can't do anything about it. Granted the situation can be fixed and I can be stronger than before in no time, but just the whole situation sucks. I kept thinking that I've been through a worse situation than this and I am crying about it like a baby.
I also have some other worries that I will gain weight because I can't do my usual type of cardio, running and CrossFit. Yes, I used to have an eating disorder, two to be exact. At one point when I first started at UNCC I only had one meal for the whole day. Later I would eat two meals, breakfast and lunch and then run about 3 miles later in the day and workout another time just to burn off the extra weight. I was scared to eat. And now I'm scared that it's going to happen all over again because I can't workout like I would like to. I feel that I'm going to start training longer than I should to compensate for what I have to lack since I can't really get a full body workout in anymore.
I had planned to go home and hang out for a bit but I figured that would just give me time to dwell on the situation and I didn't want to do that so I came back up to work and did some powerlifting and some over weight work. It helped a little bit.
So MRI on Friday morning, praying that the results won't be bad to the point where I will need surgery! But I'm really scared at this point that I am. Tom told me to think positive, easier said than done, and that I will come back stronger than before. Let's hope and pray so!
Update on the knee after Friday.
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