Hello all! I cam across this forum through a web search and hope that some of the members may be able to give a little advice?
A bit about me...... I'm 27, 6ft 4inches tall, 12 stone (or 80 odd kilo's in new money!) and i am a very fit and healthy person, with the exception of my right knee!
I live in Scotland and my occupation is fish farming, which is quite a physical job involving heavy lifting (up to 40kilo's) often over the course of a whole day.
My long injury
Eight and a half years ago i was playing football (soccer!
) and when i tried to kick a ball with my right foot my knee over extended causing my foot to come up to my face!!
Severe pain!! and lots of it and terrible swelling with black bruises. Hospital next day, told that there was no problems on the x-rays just a bad twist/sprain.
On crutches for a few weeks, but no better so back again. Was decided that fluid would be drained from the knee, which involved a big syringe and no anaesthetic
Another two months on crutches but still no better.... so back to my G.P. were i was prescribed anti-inflammatories and pain killers..... swelling reduced over the next few months but still not much movement. Problems with locking then followed and crunching in the knee with a feeling of someting moving about, if i went on my kness then i could feel it and push it about with some pain! Back to doctor and reffered to hospital, two months later appointment came and i was back at hospital
Doctor put up original x-ray and even i could see that something was wrong with the knee
More x-rays taken from different angles and two or three pieces of bone/cartillage were in there floating about. Apparently i'd fractured the bottom off my patella?
Operation (key hole surgery-athroscopy) two months late (the NHS doesn't move very fast!) and doctor presents me with a piece of bone! but only one??? Its all they could find and they think it was the same piece moving about between x-rays?
So..... over the next few years problems with moving pieces? or thats what it felt like... grinding...swelling....bruising and locking of the knee joint... all in all not good. Visited the doctors surgery on several occasions, but only got pain killers.
Two and a half years ago, things started feeling worse, something was on the move and getting in the wrong places! locking, bruising and swelling so back to a different surgery (i'd moved North) and the doctor didn't like what he saw. Told me i'd been let down by the NHS...blah blah blah and he'd make an emergency appointment for me at the hospital. A month passed... no news and then the inevitable happened... it locked, and it wouldn't unlock. Phoned the doctors surgey, turns out the doctor forgot to send off my referal to the hospital
go straight to Accident and Emergency.
At the hospital got roughed up and abused but the knee didn't unlock, x-rays showed nothing and i was basically told it was all in my head. Sent home on crutches and phoned the next morning. "Is it still locked?" yes i replied, come in and we will operate. Knocked out again and another athroscopy with another piece recovered! yippeeee...i'm fixed... or so i thought! Six months later... back to the same old way... pain discomfort swelling bruising and some locking!
Back to the doctors surgery in September when it started to go downhill, got a letter two weeks later saying i'd be seen in the next six months in line with rules laid down by the Scottish Parliment! Yipeee!
Beginning of November at work, step over a two foot high fence and my knee buckles with an all mighty crunch, instant bruising and sweeling to the left of the knee cap. Agony, pain.... just the usual! Three days off work ice, elevation and compression but still buggered! go to the Doctors surgery again, he takes one look at my case and is shocked!
Asks me how many times i've had physiotherapy? i reply never...he's disgusted! Have you had an MRI scan before?? no never i reply, just x-rays. They'll never find anything on x-rays it must be cartillage!
He phones the hospital and tells them i'm being sent there now for immediate help, so off i go! Get to hospital..... More x-rays!!! but no change from last time, but i do find out that i have a calcified piece attached to the inside left of my knee, but its in the same place it was in 2004... news to me!
Discharged and given an appointment for Orthopaedics Outpatients the following Tuesday. Turn up they have a look, say its probably a dislocation and send me for more x-rays! I'm going to glow in the dark!!! no change they say, i ask for an MRI and thinking i'll have to argue for it, he says no probs! as if he wasn't allowed to offer it, but i'd be given it if i asked??
three weeks later, MRI then another 2weeks for results, results indicate a dislocation and taping and physiotherapy are seen as the answer so off i go to physio a few weeks later. Lovely women, very helpfull but over the next three weeks of physio i suffer three dislocation and my physio refers me for a second opinion to the hospital the next morning.
So off i go, the hospital physio (another lovely woman!!) agrees that this needs urgent Orthopaedics attention and physio is pointless, she says i need a splint and probably put in plaster to keep the knee stable, she sends me to one of the wards, were i'm seen by the doctor, who sends me for x-rays! yipeeeee!!
The results, no different, and he hasn't even looked at my knee yet!! Goes away, comes back, we can see you Tuesday morning at Orthopaedics..... suppose i better look at your knee... hmm not so good, right see you Tuesday, "sorry i can't do any more just now, im really busy"
SUPERB!!!!
So in relation to my story does anyone have anything similar??? Same injury? same long term problems? same failings off parts of the NHS?? I'd love to hear from you all!!!
Sorry its such a long story! but this is the short version!
