I have had a little Knee Setback. (Is this now a Knee Blog? Will there ever be a day when we talk about anything other than The Knee?) Today I am 11 weeks post-surgery, and yesterday I did one of the only things the surgeon told me not to do, which was to fall on the knee. I can’t even quite say how it happened, because to me it seemed like I was just suddenly hitting the hardwood floor, first with the knee, then with my cheekbone. There was that Bad Feeling of when something theoretically avoidable has happened and you can’t undo it and now there are going to be a long series of consequences—like when a child barfs in the car, or when you drop a full cup of cranberry juice and it goes EVERYWHERE. Plus I was a little stunned. What just happened? Did I not even try to catch myself with my hands? (This morning there was a big bruise on the outer/back edge of my left hand.) I do fall relatively often for an adult, but I don’t think I have hit my FACE in a fall since childhood.
William was home, and called out from the other room “Are you okay?,” and I said that I was, but that I had fallen. I got up, thinking about how the surgeon had said that if I fell, I should go to the ER to have the knee checked out. I wondered if that still applied 11 weeks later, or if that was just for the immediate post-surgical time. As I wondered that, I noticed my pant leg was wet. I have fallen many, many, MANY times in my life, and I have skinned many a knee, and there has never been this much blood this quickly. There was a cut across the top of the knee, perpendicular to the incision scar. The pants I was wearing were not torn or damaged. I still don’t know how/why the cut happened.
I had just made some lunch, after being away from the house for six hours for work and for physical therapy, and I was also feeling stunned and dismayed and embarrassed and very uncertain what to do, so I took a big chunk of folded paper towels and pressed it against my knee, and propped my leg up on a chair, and said that the plan was to eat my lunch while the bleeding stopped, after which I would call the surgeon’s office and find out if I was seriously supposed to go to the ER for this.
I ate about a quarter of my lunch but I’d lost my appetite. And the bleeding was not stopping. William was nervous and asking if he should drive me to the ER. I thought I could drive myself, until I stood up and the bleeding was much worse. So he drove me to the emergency room. There must be a button they can push at reception for a bleeder, because someone from triage came right out, asked me good-naturedly if I was bleeding on her carpet, and put a 2-inch-thick pile of gauze on my knee and wrapped it with that stretchy elastic stuff that sticks to itself but not to your skin. I am not exaggerating how thick the stack of gauze was.
She then brought me right into triage as soon as I was done checking in, which made me think they were not busy, but I was wrong: this was my first visit to the ER where I spent the whole time in the hallway because every room was full. Because my situation was NOT dire and I was NOT miserable, this was splendid: I got to hear lots of interesting little tidbits about other people and their situations. I was right between TWO nurse telephones, so I heard them describing all sorts of things to their colleagues in this and other hospitals. I was in a cluster of four hallway patients, so I heard their nurses/doctors talking to them about what their issues were. More patients were escorted by police officers than I’d expected. I played on my phone and tried to act like I wasn’t listening.
A nurse brought me an ice pack and a blanket. A PA (physician’s assistant) came by to ask me what brought me here today, and I told her, and she said the plan was (1) x-rays; (2) waiting for a radiologist to assess the x-rays; (3) stitches; (4) possibly a tetanus shot, if my records showed it had been awhile since my last tetanus shot. And those are the four things we did. It took about four hours.
I had never had stitches while awake before. Oh, I guess I had them after my c-sections, but at the time I could not feel a single thing below my ribs so those don’t count. The PA said the worse part would be the three lidocaine shots I’d have before the stitching, and she said those WOULD hurt quite a bit going in—but happily those were done on the part of my knee that is still numb from the knee surgery! I hardly felt them! The stitching itself was conceptually icky, but not painful; I got 7 stitches, which is a pleasing number. The tetanus shot was pretty painful as arm-shots go, but was over quickly and then didn’t keep hurting, though my arm is somewhat sore today.
I had thought that the stitches would pretty much put an end to the bleeding, but that was not the case. I’d thought that once I’d gone to bed and woken up in the morning, THEN the bleeding would have stopped, and that seemed to be the case, but then I went to work and that definitely made things worse, and I left after a couple of hours when the thick bandage failed to be sufficient. I am now trying more advanced resting, to see if I can make it stop, and I think it has mostly worked, but I also think it’s a difficult location for that. My knee is pretty swollen again now, and purple again. There are unpleasant intermittent burning/stinging/zinging sensations on my skin, not where the stitches are but on other parts of the knee.
I am trying not to worry about literally everything about this. I am trying not to project doom into the future (“I guess I am going to be the kind of old person who lightly jostles against a chair and ends up covered in bruises”/”Maybe these are the first indications of what will turn out to be a blood-clotting disorder”/”Is my skin weirdly fragile and breakable now?”/”I am going to be put in A Home so much earlier because of this falling thing”). My whole leg was purple and swollen after the knee surgery, to the point where the visiting home physical therapist was quietly alarmed and got on the phone to the surgeon’s office, and the surgeon was just like “Yep, that happens sometimes,” and indeed the purple gradually cleared itself away. Probably I should take one of my leftover painkillers (NO I did not get rid of them responsibly) and try not to think about it.
Oh! And I should say that the x-rays showed the new $58,000 knee (our co-pay was $180) was just fine. Everything where it should be, no sign of injury or misalignment. “Unremarkable left knee,” was the conclusion. I am trying not to imagine that my knee feels weird or that I’m walking weird or that things are hitching a little with each step (“Maybe I slammed something out of alignment and now it will have to be taken out and replaced”/”Maybe the surgeon will have to do another surgery to adjust it”/”Maybe he will need to adjust it from the outside and it will be very painful and icky”).
Oh no! That all sounds quite traumatic. So sorry about the injury. Glad you did get to the ER. I hope it all heals up smoothly and quickly.
I once had to take my husband to the ER for an accident on his hands that was bleeding. He said he didn’t need to go. He ended up needing 36 stitched on his fingers! We did wait quite awhile in the waiting room for that, as the bleeding had stopped with a towel.
OMFG Swistle I am so so sorry that sounds so scary! And also so mysterious! I am glad William was home and you got care quickly (and I’ve been stuck in the hallway in the ER a few times….last time a woman was refusing to go to the specialty eye ER even though her eye pressure was so high she was in danger of going blind, and a patient punched a staffer)
So sorry you fell and hurt yourself. As one of what seems to be quite a few readers with knee issues, I am very happy to keep reading the Knee Chronicles; it’s been very informative. Your account today is very calm and level-headed. Was this how it felt at the time or are we getting the benefit of retrospection?
(Also, $58,000 for a knee, blimey).
I felt like I was coping very well with everything, but also I felt like it was very hard to think or to make decisions, which, especially in retrospect, seems like an indication that I was not entirely coping well! Also, my blood pressure and heartrate were very high at check-in. Also I was very CHATTY with everyone who came to deal with me.
I was so excited to see your post but then so sad to hear about your setback. I hope that those weird zig-zagging feelings go away quickly. It is fascinating and impressive to observe how our bodies heal themselves. May your body heal as quickly and painlessly and perfectly as possible.
I can absolutely relate to the worries of how my aging body will react to physical activity or the general jostling of life’. As luck would have it, I waited until I was 50 before I became obsessed with skiing. While I’ve been extremely careful, I recently had a nothing fall that resulted in a few visits to the orthopedist, an x-ray and MRI and a suspension of my ski season. While I have been given the all clear, I am extremely hesitant to do anything physical. I know (and the doctor told me) that all of my normal activities would be fine and even recommended, I have never had a lot of confidence in my athletic ability so I don’t quite believe him. I was recently watching one of the challenges on survivor and found myself figuring out the many different ways I would hurt myself.
So much bleeding! I’m glad to hear the knee is unremarkable by x-ray, but quite sorry you’ve had such an added ordeal and now more recovery. I also got stitches for the first time (minus the c-sections) this past year and also in my left knee. It’s very weird. It seems to have healed fine enough, but the scar is much more noticeable than my husband’s craniotomy scar, so maybe the person who stitched me up wasn’t very good at it or my skin did a poor job. Bodies are quite a lot to deal with
The PA who stitched me up said my new scar would not be as pretty as the one the surgeon did: she said surgeons are the experts, and that the ER is more “slapdash.” But then she said she felt self-conscious knowing a surgeon would soon be seeing her work, so she worked very slowly and carefully, so maybe it will be a fairly pretty scar after all!
That does make sense- you’d think the ER would be pretty expert at stitches, but I suppose their goal is different than the surgeons’.
I like your writing so much that I would read about you going to the dentist. Oh wait, I *have* read about you going to the dentist! (lol) I hope your knee heals up quickly and this incident quickly fades as just a temporary blip. <3
Ugh, I’m so sorry that you’re having to deal with this – recovery is hard enough when it’s uneventful!
Wow, I am so sorry for all of this! I worry about falling all the damned time, ever since I broke my wrist TEN years ago, I worry about how easy it is to just change everything. I remember talking to my dentist about it, he is about 10 years older than I am and he said if there is the SLIGHTEST chance of ice, he straps on those mucklucks or whatever they are to his shoes so that he won’t fall. I remember he stretched out his hands in front of him and said, I can’t not have these! I remember when I broke my wrist saying every two seconds to my kids, go ask Daddy to do it, because I didn’t realize how many BUTTONS and SNAPS I did all day, every day. Anyway, I’m glad you got to listen to the gossip and that the ER visit went relatively okay and I’m so, so glad the knee surgery part of it is okay.
OMG SWISTLE. This sounds honestly terrifying and I would also be so worried. WTF bleeding??? That’s too much bleeding! Settle down, knee! Although yay, so glad that the actual knee is okay but why with the blood?? *takes deep breaths*
WHY INDEED. I am trying not to worry, but that really seems Wrong! The ER was not alarmed about it, which sort of helped, but also I felt like it WAS a little alarming so maybe they SHOULD BE a little alarmed?? And why did I get that cut IN THE FIRST PLACE? *pant pant*
is it possible that you were cut from the inside, as you fell against your knee? It doesn’t seem possible but it sounds like a very deep cut, your pants were not torn, and you couldn’t see *anything* that might have cut your knee on the ground. I’m glad you got stitched up and got good gossip and I hope you are feeling 100% very soon.
That’s what I’m wondering TOOOOOOOO. Like, did my new knee CUT ME?? FROM THE INSIDE?? But I’ll bet it’s more what Nine says about the skin being tight and (*trying not to faint*) splitting. The knee was still swollen from the surgery, so maybe that’s it. I tried to get the PA to speculate, but she wouldn’t.
oh that DOES make sense! I also had open heart surgery to correct a congenital heart defect, and I was surprised to learn that MORE THAN A MONTH AFTER SURGERY my incision could just SPLIT OPEN and continue to open more every day! LOVED THAT JOURNEY FOR ME.
*clutches chest, appalled*
I am glad it is okay now. And there will be a day where we don’t always discuss your knee but today is not that day. We used to all discuss nothing but our tiny babies and then they got bigger orbits and now we have other things to discuss. Someday your knee will also grow up. Also I am always interested in your knee anyway.
I was shockingly disappointed that you didn’t put down a transcript of all the things you overheard and also I wouldn’t have either. I love nothing more than a good gossip even when it is totally irrelevant to everything.
I confided to the PA that I did not one bit mind being privy to all this interesting information, and she said that’s one of the reasons she got a job in the ER: best gossip in the whole medical system.
Have you heard of the podcast Normal Gossip? It’s exactly what you said, somebody else’s interesting, sometimes scandalous gossip told in a fun and appealing way.
I love that podcast! It’s so fun!
A relief that the x-ray was unremarkable! Whew. I am sure it was scary, though.
My friends and I have to stop ourselves talking about all our ailments, sometimes, lest we become just Old People With Pains. Maybe a Knee-Blog is the online equivalent (but I don’t mind!). :)
That sounds like an ordeal. I’m sorry you’ve had a setback and all the blood, glad no permanent damage was done. I also fall a lot for an adult and when I get of an age when doctors ask if I’ve fallen recently I am probably going to have to say yes the very first time.
I am also a fan who would read about anything you choose, so continue the Knee Blog until there is Something Else.
I’m so sorry for this setback! I’d be unable to rest until I worked out Why!? Why the cut, Knee?
Also, I don’t fall often, but I fell on ice 6 winters ago, and broke my wrist, and have been terrified to go out when it’s icy since then – I have crampons, but they are awful on the bits of cleared concrete between ice patches. So, like an old lady, I’ve stayed in a lot more in winter. And I hate my fear for it.
YES. This whole thing is making me feel as if I’ve unpleasantly leveled-up into Timid Old Lady, and I DO NOT LIKE IT.
Glad you’re on the mend! It feels strange to not trust your body not to fall. I’ve tried some trail running recently (like gravel roads and dirt paths that are pretty flat) and I am finding myself wiping out on small stuff that I should have seen. Lots of skinned knees and torn running pants over here! I’m not particuarly coordinated, but I didn’t expect to be falling a lot. Anyway! Risking unsolicited advice giving here, maybe your PT would help you with stability exercises if you’re worried about falls in the future?
Oh bother. I’m sorry, Swistle. That is hard. I’m glad you’re all right, and I hope that on-guard-feeling simmers down soon. It’s hard to have those feelings of vigilance and what-if.
Sending love.
Oh they definitely have a button for bleeders. I was walking home from the grocery store and tripped and fell on a crack in the sidewalk. I got a very small scrape on the bottom of my chin that bled PROFUSELY. By the time I got to the urgent care with a WAD of paper towels under my chin, I had blood ALL down the front of my outfit. The check in guy said I may have to wait a bit, and I nodded as if in agreement. Internally I was thinking,”Yeah sure, they’re not going to let a walking biohazard sit here and continue to bleed all over.” Sure enough, I didn’t even make it across the waiting room to sit down before a nurse came RIGHT OUT to take me back.
Sending the best, healing thoughts to you and your knee.
Is your skin tighter over your knee than it was before the surgery? I haven’t had mine done but I’m picturing tight skin that can, well, SPLIT if someone looks at it funny. I’m squeamish about surgical things but i did watch a youtube recently where a dude got a cyst on the back of his neck removed and the skin split at some point during the cyst erupting like a volcano part and *shudder* that’s enough of that.
I fell on my head in the driveway in Feb because of ice (maybe I documenting this thrilling saga in your comments already) and had a lump on my head right after but the mysterious bruise on the palm of my hand didn’t appear until the next day. I didn’t catch myself at all (just boom, down) so i think i clenched my hand around my keys like they were going to save me.
Ugggggg I’ll bet this was it. My knee was still swollen from the surgery (apparently it can take A YEAR OR MORE to go fully back to normal!!), and I’ll bet that’s what did it. Grosssssssssss—but better than my fearful thought about what if my skin just does this now.
Thank you for this update. I hope that you heal up quickly.
Ignoring that whole thing with the knee… apropro of your interest in the ED… have you been watching The Pitt?? I love reality medical shows but not medical dramas; but this is a medical drama that is just absolutely fabulous. It’s even better with subtitles on so you catch all the little things.
Ugggghhhh despite the cheery upbeat tone of this post, this experience sounds so stressful and upsetting! I am so very glad it worked out okay (but all the bloooood omg) and that your new knee is unaffected (but the bloooooood).
Reading about the knee is reading about what’s going on in your life, and I plan to tune into what’s going on in your life for as long as you continue to write about it.
I am trying to distract myself from the distress of so much blood by being very pleased that you got such a great spot in the ER. I love that kind of thing — being able to listen in to other people’s lives, and how fun (probably not the correct adjective but I will let it lie) to be able to listen in at such a high drama time and place! Have you been watching the “new ER” — what’s it called… oh yes, “The Pitt”? It’s excellent and I am picturing you right in the midst of the show, watching Noah Wyle and all the other cast members deal with high drama situations.
Speaking of bleeding buttons….i once had to go to the ER with what was a nicked artery and I was kind of gushing and they took me back REAL FAST. Even faster than the time I came in and couldn’t really breathe.
Oh nooo.
I’m so sorry this happened.
I’ve only been to the ER once. I had to take my husband and it turned out he had a blood clotting disorder and he was admitted for 8 days. Scariest time in my life.
My grandma knocked her shoulder replacement out of place and I’m very glad to hear you did not do that to your knee!
Rest up!!
As far as the bleeding—I’m sure you’d be past the time they might have had you taking a blood thinner like aspirin? That was the one thing I wondered as a possible cause…speedy recovery to you from this incident that I’m sure was unnerving!
Awww, Swistle!!!! I love you and I’m so sorry you have had this setback. I would have been such a ball of nerves, but you handled it so well. William is such a champion. Sending lots of good vibes and hoping for a quick recovery!!!!
The burning/stinging/zinging sensation makes me think of cranky nerves. I had a lumpectomy and lymph node biopsy two years ago. There are a lot of nerves in your armpit, and boy did mine wake up cranky . Two years later, they still aren’t all awake and I still get burning/stinging/tingles down the back of my arm. This is especially true after periods of high activity. I’m wondering if your fall bothered the nerves already upset from your surgery.
Oh, I’ll bet that’s it—especially since a bunch of nerves were cut during the original surgery and haven’t yet grown back. The surgeon said nerves grow very slowly, AND that there is a patch where they will NOT grow back—so I will have a decreasing-but-never-all-the-way-gone numb patch. I’ll bet the new injury is very confusing to those missing and half-grown nerves.