Well, I have given myself a swift kick in the arse for delaying this follow up post to my knee situation from last June. I would like to thank those that have shown interest in my patella demise and the least I could do is continue the story and bring some closure to the whole sordid affair. =)

So, where did I leave off? Right, the three weeks before seeing the doctor for the second visit. This was a pretty difficult time at first. It took awhile to get accustomed to living on the couch, you feel so boxed in and restricted, and your whole body starts to play games with differing comfort levels (i.e. when your legs are comfortable your back decides not to be, when you back is comfortable your neck decides not to be, etc.), eventually a happy medium is reached and all is right in the universe. The key is keeping yourself busy. I did a lot of reading, caught up on my Japanese animation shows (Naruto and Bleach), watched movies, and put together the two articles on web design and Canadian tax laws. When my mind was focused on other things besides my knee it makes it a lot easier to deal with.

One thing that was hard to deal with was getting up off the couch to move around, which took a few painful attempts to perfect because getting off the couch required the synchronized use of the crutches and upper body strength to be able to push yourself up off the couch and ensuring you keep your bad leg from doing anything other than staying off the ground. Getting back onto the couch was also just as fun, but a bit easier in my opinion.

Since I had everything I needed on the main floor of the house moving around with the crutches wasn’t too bad. It was when I had to go for my doctor’s visit that I realized just how death defyingly difficult it was to get down stairs with crutches and a splinted leg. Scary scary scary.

My visit with the Doctor went fairly well I guess. He looked at my knee, looked at my X-rays from before, felt the knee and the surrounding area, and indicated that he was confident that I wouldn’t need surgery. Whew, that was a relief. I am not a huge fan of being cut open if I don’t really have to be. The Doctor advised me that I would be okay to get started on my physiotherapy and that I should come back and see him in two weeks time. He then directed me to go and speak with the physiotherapist that is in the clinic.

The physiotherapist at the clinic was quite nice and personable, and she was simply there to explain to me what I needed to do at home to promote my recovery (stretching and flexing exercises for my knee and leg muscles). She also taught me how to go up and down stairs with my crutches. Wow, no wonder I nearly killed myself when I left my house to go to the doctor’s, I was going down the stairs completely wrong! The way she showed me made a world of difference. It consists of utilizing both the handrail of the stairs (if there is one) and the crutches. With the crutches you double them up in the arm that isn’t using the handrail, and whether you are going up or down determines which leg you use. If you are going UP stairs you will lead off with your good leg, and when it comes time to use the bad leg you ensure that you have the crutch do the work (you can’t have your leg touch the stair or apply any pressure to it. When you have to go DOWN stairs you lead off with your bad leg, although you aren’t technically using your leg because you are having the crutches do the work. She told me to remember it this way: “Good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell.” Which means, since Heaven is UP you use your good leg to lead when you are going up the stairs. And since Hell is down you use your bad leg to lead when going down the stairs.

At this point I now had a referral slip for a physiotherapist, so it was up to me to find a physiotherapist in my neighbourhood and get started on my recovery. My wife was a real help in this department because she went to the physiotherapists in my surrounding area to get a feel for the Doctors and to see what the facilities were like. Out of about 7 of them she felt one was the best choice. She felt really good about the doctor and the place itself wasn’t too busy or overcrowded. The exercise equipment looked in good shape and up to date. All of these helped her decision but in the end she also told me it was the vibe that she got from the place; it felt right and the doctor felt like a good person.

She was right. The doctor was a really great guy who was very knowledgeable. Right from the very beginning when he first saw me hobbling in my crutches he said to me “Well, first, we’ll be getting rid of those in a week” (meaning the crutches). His philosophy was that they inhibit recovery because you become too dependent on them, which doesn’t provide your body the ability to reteach itself how to walk properly and to redevelop the proper walking motion. After the week we would then go to a cane for two more weeks and then after that nothing; just me and my appendages. And sure enough that was how it worked out, not magically of course, there was a lot of work and pain involved in the journey; but that, as they say, is another story. =)