Kelly's World

It’s hard to believe that just one year ago I hurt my right knee playing netball. It was a career ending injury, I’ve never returned to netball since and we all know that I was going to be the next Liz Ellis (disclaimer – that is not entirely true, I was more likely to become Dumbo than Liz Ellis). I managed to tear my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), the ligament which runs through the centre of the knee and connects your shin (tibia) with your thigh (femur). The ligament is largely responsible for the stability of the knee, and no doubt my long periods of playing netball had greatly stressed this ligament to the point where it could handle no more and ripped. It’s a common injury among netball players and participants of other sports requiring frequent changes of direction at high speed.

3 months later I had a knee reconstruction and began the long period of rehabilitation. I documented each day of my first week follwed by a few more regular updates discussing my progress. It’s been 7 months since my last update, and 9 months since the surgery.

Appearance wise my knee hasn’t changed too much. I know from previous accidents that I scar badly and it takes a LONG time for them to go away. In fact, my scars tend to turn into hypertrophic scars, red raised lumps. I have a scar on my left knee from when I sliced it open on a raised tile in a pool; I was 13 at the time. I’m now 25, and even after 12 years there are still pink bits on the scar. It became quite lumpy originally, but when playing soccer at school I copped a strong hit in the knee by the soccer ball causing my knee to swell. When it went down I was pleased to see my scar had been flattened out in the process.

The actual lines from the stitches have gone, and while my hypertrophic scarring has kicked in and made the long scar look a little bit lumpy, it’s also faded significantly in parts along the length of the scar. The fluro light makes the upper scars look a lot darker in the 9 months picture compared to the 2 months, but looking at them normally I wouldn’t say they’ve faded much at all. The scar on the very left of the picture (not quite visible on the 9 months picture) has a little bit of fading, but not much.

The fluro light made my knee look a lot whiter in the left picture!

With regards to movement, I’m happy to say that I’ve nearly regained full use of my leg again. I can now bend my knee to the same angle as my good leg, but there’s still quite a strength difference. I can notice it when I’m feeling a little bit tired, walking up or down stairs I’ll tend to compensate for my right knee a little bit. My physio has got me doing strengthening exercises in the gym 2 – 3 times a week to build up the muscles so hopefully this will go away in time. Last visit to the physio there was still a 4cm difference between my left and right thighs, so my right quads and hamstrings are getting quite the hammering in the gym in a bid to even it up.

A little over a month ago I was given the all clear to start running slowly in figure 8’s and changing directions, but it was only in the last 2 weeks that my physio told me to really start putting pressure on my knee. I haven’t been doing it as yet and I know I really need to get cracking on it. Until I was allowed to change directions I was still able to run, and have been working towards running 5km following the “Couch to 5k” running program. Now that I am able to put pressure on my knee I’ll be setting up some markers and running between them and getting used to changing directions.

I don’t expect to be seeing the physio for much longer; at this stage I’m only seeing him once every 6 weeks. The sports insurance from the netball courts that had covered all my physio has just run out (as they only pay for rehabilitation up to 12 months after the injury was sustained) and I’ve also reached the limit on coverage for physio services from my own personal health insurance. At $75 a pop to see the physio it’s not something I want to be paying often.

I’m not sure what my next few bench marks are, perhaps equal sized leg muscles? I guess I can almost say that it’s the end of this saga, and something I can put behind me. Still, it’s kinda sad that I even have a category on my blog specifically for discussing all the various injuries I sustain. Perhaps my next aim should stop hurting myself?

On Monday I will be hitting on 2 months since my knee reconstruction, so I figured it was time for an update.

Physiotherapy:

Boy, have I learnt my lessons here!! No matter what happens, do what the physio says. For one week I barely did any exercises, instead utilising the all-powerful wishful thinking method of dealing with my rehabiliation. Big mistake. When I visited the physio and he tested my bend, it got to the stage where I was actually crawling along the bed trying to get away from his grip. Extremely painful, and it was all because I hadn’t done anything for the week. I’m happy to say it only took me one mistake to learn my lesson, and I’ve been doing my exercises religiously since then. Funny how doing what a health professional recommends actually works! *end sarcasm*

As of next week I will have reached the stage where I will only require physiotherapy once every fortnight. To put it into perspective, this week is the first week since October 2008 that I haven’t seen the physio at least once.

Bend

Unfortunately Mat wasn’t home, so I’m unable to take a photo. This was my knee after 2 weeks:

The difference in my good knee and bad knee after 2 weeks

That was as far as I could literally go without excruciating pain. Through 2 months of physio my right leg now hangs normally, like my left in the picture. In fact, I can even pull it underneath me! It’s strange to be so excited by that, but for me it’s huge. Walking down steps is still a little bit of a challenge, but one that I’m gradually winning. In the beginning it was a slow painful progress to go down stairs. I had to step first with my right leg, then use my left to join the right on the one step. Now I can go step-by-step, one foot on one step. There is still a little bit of a jump/limp to it, but only because my knee doesn’t have the strength to support my weight in a downward fashion. If I go down stairs immediately after doing my exercises there is a notable difference and it becomes a lot easier, so I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until I get the better of the evil set of stairs.

Insurance

I’m happy to say that my claim was approved, and I’ve banked my first cheque for reimbursement. It worked out to be $275 in physio costs (after my health insurance claims), so I’m extremely grateful for the insurance agencies kindness in accepting my claim after the cut off date. In the next week I’ll be putting through my next claim, from December to the end of January and I expect it will be a little bit less (as I missed a few weeks of physio immediately after my surgery). Knowing I have an insurance company behind me takes a massive weight off my shoulders though, and I can focus on everywhere else that money is a concern, like my trip to the US later this year.

Scars

It’s probably not obvious from the photo below, but unfortunately my scars have become a tad bit keloid. They have raised a little bit, the most obvious being the circular scar to the very left of the image. It’s actually got quite a lump to it.

2 month old scars

If you know me well, then you’ll know I scar pretty badly. I have a scar on my arm that is almost 6 years old, and still extremely pink/purple. I plan on buying some silicon patches to try out, which I’ll be sure to post about it when I eventually start the treatment. I’ve heard these particular patches work miracles, let’s hope it’s the same for me!

I’ve noticed if you look at my scar a little blurry eyed, the two dots on the right and the long one could almost be a smiley face! Who’s a geek now!

Things next on my list to achieve:

1. Ride a bike for 30mins continuously
2. Walk down the stairs normally
3. Jump

Scars revealed for the first time

Today I finally got to take my patches off, and reveal my scars for the first time to the world (I saw them yesterday when the original patches came off and new ones were applied).

As you can see there’s a total of 6 marks: 1 long one (5 stitches), 3 smaller ones (one stitch each), and 2 small holes. Unfortunately the smaller hole became infected, so I was provided with some brown ointment to apply on it after my shower to help clean it up.

I’m quite happy with the scars, since they long cuts are really quite thin. Hopefully it means they’ll heal and fade away much faster. Knowing my luck, that’s going to be the look of my knee for the next 5 years! Have I mentioned how much I love jeans (aka covering up my legs – yeah, that’s why they’re so white). My knee is still a little swollen too, although it might not be so obvious in that image. Particularly around the bottom of the image, leading to my thighs. It’s extremely round….

Now to have my first shower in 2 weeks where I haven’t had to spend 10mins wrapping plastic around my leg. Woohoo!

It’s been 2 weeks since the surgery, so I returned to the hospital today to get my stitches out. As I’d previously mentioned, I’d been worried about blood clots etc, but everything seems to have settled in my leg. I’m 99% positive it was just a really bad, painful bruise. Unfortunately I forgot to mention it to the Surgeon when I was there today, so I guess I’ll just have to hope my assumption (and googling) was correct. Otherwise, if I die from a blood clot in my lungs/heart, we’ll know I was wrong.

Another thing I’d been worried about (rather foolishly) was the possibility of having already damaged my leg to the point the ligament was already torn again. When I was there today, the surgeon tested the ligament by pushing my thigh down and pulling my shin up. Previously, it was really easy for him to do and he was able to separate the sections. This time, it was rock solid proving the ligament was implemented and healing well. Good sign!

When the patches came off I was really pleased to see how thin the scars were. Typically, my scars remain pink/purple for a long amount of time, and can have small lumps in them. I have a scar on my knee from approximately 10 years ago that’s still pink in the centre, and one on my arm from 6 years ago (from getting a mole removed) that has lumps in it, and is still bright purple. It’s only just begun to change to skin tone colour around the edges. I’ve been told that I am a mild keloid scarring person, and based on the wikipedia entry I can agree mine are very mild! My scars look absolutely nothing like in the articles! But back to the hospital, the nurse cleaned up any remaining dried blood and applied fresh dressings to the area. They can be removed for good tomorrow, when I’ll be able to post a picture.

I was told I was free to begin putting full weight on my leg again, and to start walking immediately. I’d actually started limping around in the morning, so had a good idea of how I’d be able to move. That way I wouldn’t look quite so retarded in the hospital in front of others! I received a few more instructions, and the nurse gave me some ointment to put on one of my wounds. Unfortunately it looked like it was slightly infected (nothing serious) so I would just need to rub that on for a couple of days. We then headed out the front where I made an appointment to see the surgeon again in 3 months for a progress check, then I was free to leave.

On the way out I stopped in at the gift store and bought some chocolates & flowers, and dropped them off to the nurses in the ward where I had stayed 2 weeks earlier. One of the nurses identified me immediately when I came in, and said “hey Kelly! How’s the knee!” Very impressed with her memory. We chatted about it, and I handed over the gifts. I thanked her again for taking such great care of me when I was there, told her nurses were under rated, wished her a Merry Christmas and left. I felt really good for doing that, hoping I made someone’s day *grin*

I then stayed at home for an hour, before getting ready to visit the physio. It’s only around the corner from me, and normally takes 10 – 15mins walk to get there, but today I left with 25mins to spare. I was determined to walk there to celebrate my newfound freedom from crutches, and I had timed it perfectly. I arrived just in time for my appointment. I have such a profound limp at the moment that it really slows me down walking. As usual, my physio worked his magic and after half an hour I had already managed to bend my leg more. He gave me my list of exercises to focus on for the week, which were the same as when I initially hurt myself. Thankfully, since I’ve been there/done that, it will be really easy to do. The main thing I will need to focus on for the next month will be working to be able to fully bend my knee again.

The difference in my good knee and bad knee

As you can see in the above picture, while simply sitting on the desk my right leg goes only so far. That’s while merely relaxing my legs, and letting them just hang. One of my exercises is to swing my leg back and forth, gradually increasing the amount I can bend it. Easy, non-painful exercises.

So that’s pretty much it for the next few weeks! I’ll post a photo of my scars tomorrow once the patches come off, and perhaps in a month or so I’ll take another photo showing the difference in my legs hanging from the desk to show how much I’ve been able to achieve. At the moment I can’t drive, since I can’t bend my leg enough to switch between the brake and accelerator. I climbed in the car tonight, and could barely get my leg in the door without having to lift myself off the seat to bring my knee in. I’ll give myself a week, then try again. Until then, it’s walking around the block, exercises, and rest!

My knee/leg 7 days after surgery

First off – I don’t think my leg looks very glamorous lying on the couch. It reminds me of a chicken leg haha. Also, the keyboard, mice and iphone cable were in the picture since I took the photo sitting where I work during the day *grin* The cable was being held my knee while I took the picture.

Compared to day 2, there is more blood in the top wound, and the blood has dried in all 3 (hence the dark colour). The bottom left wound has amazingly spread out a fair bit, but as you can tell there’s not that much blood in that one, it was more just seepage than anything else. It’s also the most itchy of all of them, so perhaps it’s scabbing over already.

You may be able to see the bruise extending up my shin as well?? It’s a slight yellow colour.

Other than that, same ol’ same ol’! This time next week I’ll be posting a picture with the patches off, and all scars revealed…stay tuned!