January 30th, 2016 – I’m 3 1/2 months since my Oct. 18th, 2015 injury of my right knee ACL and MCL ligaments as posted in my original blog story. I just finished a blog celebrating my 3 years post Sacroiliac Joint Surgery describing details of therapy etc. so I won’t repeat myself here.
I just wanted to give an update for this knee injury category. I had a follow up appointment with my local orthopedic doctor, Dr. Tingstad of Inland Orthopedics in Pullman, WA on 1/21/16. Here are his findings upon exam:”On exam today, she has no knee effusion. She lacks about 20 degrees of terminal flexion on the right side compared to the left. She is stable to varus, valgus, Lachman and posterior drawer examination. She has well-healed arthroscopic portal sites about the right ankle and walks with a neutral gait alignment with a a negative Trendelenburg.” And his impression: “13 weeks status post partial ACL injury with still mild stiffness. ” From the date of exam till writing this blog, more stiffness worked itself out of my right knee by 2/3/16.
February 3rd, 2016 – I just came back from a wonderful day of physical therapy and seeing all my doctors as we rejoiced at how well I was doing. I was wearing a dress and 1 1/2 inch heels and I was just very happy to keep moving forward in my journey. I was able to dance at the Moose Club in my heels and no pain whatsoever in back, legs, ankles or feet. No feelings of weakness or instability. I really was good to go. Well after being home for a few hours and right before bedtime, I was bent down kneeling on left knee and my right knee flexed more than 90 degrees. I aggravated my right knee when I went to stand back up. My initial sharp pain was caudal and lateral to my patella. I didn’t think to much about it except that in the middle of the night the pain was more intense when I went to walk on it. I had already ace wrapped it. Talk about a slam dunk after success and rejoicing. Needless to say, we sure don’t know what will happen in our lives moment by moment.
February 4th, 2016 -Next morning, I was able to get into Dr. Sheldon, my chiropractor and he said: “There is point tenderness in her medial knee with associated mild edema. There is a localized myospasm in her posteromedial gastrocnemius. An extremity subluxation was discovered and adjusted in her right knee post tibia.” The symptoms were all too real and similar to my major injury back in Oct. 2015 but about 1/4th of the trauma.
This same day my personal physical therapist consultant did some therapy and found that I had an MCL strain with Laxity 1+ positive with MCL stress test at 0 degrees full extension and with 30 degrees of flexion. My ACL was still strongly intact. After the chiropractic adjustment and the Physical Therapy, I was doing so much better; however, this was a major setback to me on a minor physical scale. Major because I was already confirmed for upcoming left elbow surgery and I didn’t want to be dealing with more problems on top of a surgery with right knee problems again.
February 5th, 2016 – I saw my chiropractor again and he confirmed that the adjustment the previous day was holding and now it just needed to be protected with my Breg Fusion Brace while the soft tissues could heal, specifically the medial side of my knee. He called Lewiston Orthopedics and they agreed to see me ASAP for a Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP)Injection.
February 9th, 2016 – I saw my Dr. PZ Pearce, Champion Sports Medicine in Spokane for a prolotherapy injection into my inferior MCL where it attaches to my tibial plateau.
February 10th, 2016 – I had another physical therapy session and then went to Lewiston Orthopedics for my PRP injection into the joint space along with some CC’s into the MCL on and near area of the prolotherapy. I needed to get these injections done quickly because there would be no chance after my elbow surgery to walk on crutches if I was sore from the injections. Originally I was suppose to do a 2nd round of PRP back in December for my ACL but I was feeling so good and couldn’t bring myself to spend $525. However now with the re-injury, I think it was a wise decision to give my right knee a boost of healing with my concentrated blood platelets. I sincerely wanted to go into my elbow surgery knowing I’ve done all I could for the moment to help my knee with this minor setback after the 3 months of good healing and strength that I had worked hard to achieve.
My Patient to Patient advice: Getting alignment to the joints is very important to speed healing along if a chiropractor deems his skill can be helpful to re-align a joint from injury. Time and time again has proven to me how valuable a chiropractic assessment can be. They really do feel the position of bones and if they are subluxed or not. As long as a joint is out of alignment, the attaching muscles will have more pain due to spasm in protecting the joint.
February 12th, 2016–The pain from the injections has subsided. I’m walking fine short distances and in 2 days I fly off to Seattle for left elbow surgery. Yes the knee re-injury is a setback, but I have the faith that it will get complete healing again. With all that I’ve been through, I am very behind on my blog writings. I had every intention on writing the story leading up to my elbow surgery and that hasn’t happened. So hang in there with me and that story will come out as soon as I’m able to type better with my left hand as I’ll be going through a period of complete immobilization from wrist to above the elbow.
February 15th, 2016 –I’m on the eve of my elbow surgery and my knee is doing better. I’m able to walk in halls of hotel without my brace, but it is still sore to touch. It will still get achy at night if I don’t have the brace on to protect it when rolling over to my side. I want to end on a note of hope. I don’t want any reader to feel bad about all have gone through and continue to go through. I’m just sharing my journey as it comes. The Joy of the Lord is my strength! We may not always know why we go through what we do, but looking back I see His handwriting in my life. It is all good as I sow in tears and reap in joy! I am greatly blessed in return with each and every person that reaches out to contact me so that I can stand in the gap for them and give them resources and encouragement too.
Sincerely,
Kim-author
