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Seven Wasted Weeks
May. 17th, 2006 06:15 pm
Today's post-op review with the knee surgeon has left me somewhat depressed. If I had been given the referral to a specialist that I asked for back in December but didn't get until March after two further wasted consultations with GPs, I would probably be well out of the woods by now.
As I suspected and as the surgeon more or less confirmed to me today, it seems the physiotherapist, who without initial access to the operation summary and acting in good faith that she was treating the 'usual' cartilage problems that everyone else gets, has been giving me exercises that help the surrounding joint muscles but have in fact been preventing the bone injury itself from healing: every time I tightly contract the muscles around the knee to improve their strength, I've been compressing on an 'open' wound on the bone where cartilage has been eroded (and necessarily removed) and can never be replaced. I pointed out that it only ever really improves after long periods of not applying pressure to the joint and resting it up, after which I can walk better, so he's recommended I definitely stop the physiotherapy. This permanent injury is also to a weight-bearing part of the bone that comes into contact with the kneecap, so if it's inflamed by any activity that's too much for it, it will hurt. As I have now figured out by experience, I need to allow the wound at the end of the bone to heal itself at its own pace without continual aggravation, after which a protective scarring will form over the area of missing cartilage, but only if I go easy and do no more activities that stress it too much.
Since December this has been a long catalogue of guessing games, misdiagnoses, professional cock-ups and misguided professional advice. And now for the last seven weeks after the operation, in good faith it seems I have continued to do the wrong things for the injury, which leaves the possibility that it may be in an even worse state now than it was before, and only time will tell if it heals sufficiently.
It's difficult to put my finger on something that has gone right in this whole affair.
As I suspected and as the surgeon more or less confirmed to me today, it seems the physiotherapist, who without initial access to the operation summary and acting in good faith that she was treating the 'usual' cartilage problems that everyone else gets, has been giving me exercises that help the surrounding joint muscles but have in fact been preventing the bone injury itself from healing: every time I tightly contract the muscles around the knee to improve their strength, I've been compressing on an 'open' wound on the bone where cartilage has been eroded (and necessarily removed) and can never be replaced. I pointed out that it only ever really improves after long periods of not applying pressure to the joint and resting it up, after which I can walk better, so he's recommended I definitely stop the physiotherapy. This permanent injury is also to a weight-bearing part of the bone that comes into contact with the kneecap, so if it's inflamed by any activity that's too much for it, it will hurt. As I have now figured out by experience, I need to allow the wound at the end of the bone to heal itself at its own pace without continual aggravation, after which a protective scarring will form over the area of missing cartilage, but only if I go easy and do no more activities that stress it too much.
Since December this has been a long catalogue of guessing games, misdiagnoses, professional cock-ups and misguided professional advice. And now for the last seven weeks after the operation, in good faith it seems I have continued to do the wrong things for the injury, which leaves the possibility that it may be in an even worse state now than it was before, and only time will tell if it heals sufficiently.
It's difficult to put my finger on something that has gone right in this whole affair.
