At the
end of April, I raised the resistance on the recumbent stationary bike at the
Recreation Center where I was exercising and rode my usual 10 miles. Two nights
later I woke up in the middle of the night in tremendous pain and unable to
walk.
I slowly
got myself to the Emergency Room and after an ultra sound to check for blood
clots and an ex-ray to eliminate breaks I was sent home in a full leg brace on
crutches. The next step was seeing an orthopedic surgeon.
The pain
that I felt was unbearable. Never had I experienced such intense pain! No
matter what I did, the pain didn’t let up. I never imagined that within a
couple of weeks my hip would hurt equally as bad as my knee and then I would be
dealing with double excruciating pain. I was told to take Ibuprofen to help
with inflammation and pain, which did nothing. Then Alive was recommended and
it also did not touch the pain. I was miserable, could not concentrate on
anything and had to walk with a cane.
When I
went to see the orthopedic doctor I found him irritating. He asked me what I
wanted to do. When I asked him what he meant by that (wasn’t he supposed to
tell me?), he said I could be aggressive about the injury or not. When I opted
for being aggressive, wanting to know what was wrong, he ordered an MRI. He
also made some “ageist” remark about “what did I expect at my age”.
I got the
MRI after waiting for insurance clearance and decided to go to another
orthopedic doctor for a second opinion and hopefully a better “bedside manner”.
The new doctor was kinder and gave the diagnosis of a strained ligament in my
knee. No surgery was necessary and it would take at least 8 weeks to heal.
By this
time my opposite hip was in excruciating pain. I made another appointment with the
second doctor (with my insurance I couldn’t see the same doctor for different
body parts on the same day). After an ex-ray it was determined when the knee
healed it would take the stain off the hip. I was given a prescription for
physical therapy. I was still not given anything for the pain.
It was
five weeks after the initial injury before I was finally given a non-narcotic
painkiller. It worked a little for 12 hours. I was only to take it once a day,
so half of the day was bearable and the other half still full of pain.
Meditation,
visualization, internal psychological examination, water walking, massage and
ice all were utilized and with seeming little difference. I had difficulty with
my mind staying hopeful and involved with my own healing. It was challenging to
stay out of the mindset of being discouraged and cranky. Time was the healer in
my scenario and I felt impatient.
My
physical therapist broke through my growing discouragement. He headed my
exercise page “Paula’s Big Comeback”. His goal was to not only get me healed from
this injury but to assure good knee health in the future.
I am
still battling the pain and having difficulty walking. My dog thinks the slow
pace is great. It gives him an opportunity to smell absolutely everything along
our walks.
This experience has given me a new appreciation
of having good health. I have been blessed with health situations I can prepare
for, with a set amount of time before the healing ends. I have been able to
know approximately when I will be healthy again. Now, after this incident, I
have a much greater understanding of what people with chronic pain and permanent disabilities deal with every day. Good health is a gift.
