Displaced transverse fracture of right patella - open knee surgery post op

[Lanzecki]

Whew, I don't even have the language to properly identify everything. Nov 22nd, tripped and landed on my right knee, breaking my patella in two, ligaments on the x-rays appeared still attached. After 18 days of waiting, begging and pleading, federal worker's comp finally recognized that gosh, you know, someone with a broken patella should have something done about it.

Surgery was Dec 11th, general anesthesia and nerve block in the upper leg. First night wasn't too bad, tonight, nerve block has finally worn off and we're trying everything to manage pain. 2 Norco 5s every 4 hours, legs are elevated on a wedge pillow with a stack of pillows to support the ankle, ice pack. I've got a knee immobilizer brace, and still bandaged as they sent me home from the surgical center (with direction to keep it that way until the 22nd.)

Gonna be a long night I imagine.

[Dave33]

Hey, good luck with recovery. Make sure you stay on top of the icing schedule and pain meds, particularly in the early going. cheers!

[Lanzecki]

Hey, good luck with recovery. Make sure you stay on top of the icing schedule and pain meds, particularly in the early going. cheers!

Man, I did a horrible job introducing myself. I'm a 51 year old (nearly 52, get my first post surgical visit the day before my birthday 10 days from now) USPS maintenance mechanic, I fix the letter and package sorting machines in one of the distribution centers where my accident occurred. Which puts me under a federal worker's compensation system which utterly failed me. Someone didn't read 'displaced transverse fracture of the right patella' as being serious, so wrote it up as 'no time lost, minor injury.'

Even though I personally told them multiple times 'hey, my knee cap is in two pieces!' Finally after finding the last doctor's office within 50 miles that participates in the program and their paperwork requirements, got an appointment and they scheduled the emergency surgery two days ago on Friday.

It has not been a very pleasant experience, and what should have happened was case open, go to the first available orthopedic surgeon, get things put back together and we'll move you to a different doctor later that participates in the program, all guided by a registered nurse who understands everyone's needs and demands and personally sees to smoothing over all the bumps and irregularities. Instead I had to go to an urgent care clinic twice so they could do more x-rays and go 'yep, still broken, needs to get surgery' and after a week of 'review' (and me finding their boss and their boss's boss) finally got it re-opened and things working, but I'm weeks behind where I should be in this process in squeezed in appointments.

Instructions given to my wife over the phone is 'don't mess with it.' And 'ice if needed'. I'm in a knee immobilizer with a constriction bandage over my knee which I presume is holding all the nice little stitches and whatnot together with the gauze pad. There's a 3inch thick pad in my immobilizer that appears to be about 3 inches off to the side from being centered on the bottom rails. (it's about 6inches across.) Waiting on a call now from the doctor's service, but might have to do a telehealth visit with another doctor/nurse to see if it's something we can adjust now.

Kinda in that mushroom syndrome for this whole thing, kept in the dark and feeding off of bullshit, and with Corona so widespread, having a second person in on appointments who can ask the right questions isn't happening. I feel really stupid though, I realized after that I could have just facetimed my wife into all of this. Hindsight and 20/20 (and 2020)

Wish it was Monday already. Least I finally got a few hours of sleep (which put me off my meds schedule. Joy, that got intense for a bit there.)

[Lanzecki]

Finally got to speak to the medical assistant at the doctor's office today to find out exactly what happened in the surgery. They ended up using a couple sutures and a FiberWire band, which gives me some hope that this will be a relatively good and quick healing.

[lissygirl]

Hi there
Wondering if you still check in here and if you do how you are going?  I did the same to mine in October, except one better than you, six pieces!  If you get this (so many don't seem to on this forum) maybe we can chat.
Cheers
Lisa