Screwing your knee !

It was just another saturday Oct the 1st, I happened to go to this corporate picnic with the expectation of getting to know more people from my company and engaging in some fun activities. Some of my friends and myself we reached the place well ahead of time (by corporate standards), roughly about 10:00 am, the place was Carkeek park, one of seattle's many parks. The place was quite scenic on-looking the pacific back waters on one side, a decent beach and the Burlington santa fe rail running along the shore.

It took a while for people to flow in, but around 11:30 we were around 150 people. Lots of inane games were organized, Initially I stayed away considering the fact that they were way below my standards :-) But, I didn't want to put of the general enthusiasm in the air so decided to participate. Slowly I found myself participating in almost all the games. Some of the games were embarassingly inane that I prefer not to mention them. Anyways, the point was to get together and make friends. I must say that the day went really well and really enjoyed the time. All was well until I played this game of tug-of-war(u can guess the other games). The wistle was blown and our opponents beat us pretty comprehensively, all of us slid to the other side and in one quick motion I slipped on my side and couple of folks landed on to the side of my knee bending it rather forcibly in the wrong direction.

Hmmm.., now when I try to think of it I am unable to recall what exactly happened. All I thought at that time was that I had screwed up my knee, I heard few funny pops and a strange humming sound from my knee. I quickly tried to stretch the knee and laid it flat. Didn't feel much pain but was painfully pre-occupied thinking about the consequences. I just stay put like that for about 5 minutes by which time there was a sizeable crowd surrounding me, you can imagine, a scene similar to a classic indian road accident. When I laid down flat I could see innumerable faces inquisitively looking at me and my knee, each one suggesting doing different things like applying ice, calling for emergency help and some comforting me saying that I will be all right that it is just a sprain. While one of them was a doc. (gen. physician) and he just asked to me lay still and not move the knee. After about 15 mins. I tried to bend my knee slowly and guess what nothing happened no pain nothing. So I decided to slowly stand and see how bad my leg was. I put my entire weight on my left knee and stood up. I slowly transfered weight on to my right leg and that's when I realised how badly I had hurt my knee. It was horribly painful and my knee just gave way and went to the right. I immediately asked the folks holding me to ground me again and decided not to try anythign until help arrived.

Someone called 911 and the Fire service with a small para medics team arrived in less than 15 mins. Wonder what would have happened if it was India. The para medic team inspected my toe and the lower half of my leg for senses, took my BP and waited for the ambulance and the stretcher to arrive. By this time it started pouring badly. Just immagine an open ground, roughly 5:00 PM and a thunder storm forecast, trust me, was not a pleasant scene. I just laid on the grass with most part of my body covered with a plastic sheet. The Ambulance arrived in about 15 mins. The para medic team ripped my Jeans apart in an attempt to inspect my knee, there was little bit of swelling so, the team decided to wrap my leg in a ice wrapper that served the purpose of both restricting my leg from any movements and chilled it to check the swelling.

It was quite an experience, taking the ambulance to the ER. Much like what you must have seen in all those ER tv shows :-). They took me to an ER room and put me on a bed, of all the things they first gave me a TV remote and asked me to watch TV. I was a little surprised, some of my friends had followed the ambulance upto the hostpital. I was put through a huge pile of paper work, which was quite annoying but seems that's how it works here. The ER doc. arrived and he inspected my knee, they also took an X-ray and said that I hadn't dislocated anything and that the bones were fine too. They put a knee immobilizer around my knee and gave me a pair of crutches. The doc. prescribed some pain killer, asked me to wait for couple of days and then go to a doctor if swelling increased. One of my friend voluntarily accepted to take me to his place and I couldn't ask for more at that time. Since I was living alone there wasn't any sense in going to my place. We reached home around 9:00 pm and the phone calls started pouring, I was happy initially that so many people cared about me :-) a little later it became a little annoying for I had to explain everything over again to everyone.

Couple of days later I went to an Orthopedic, he did the physical examination and said I had hurt both my Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) and the Anterior Collateral Ligament (ACL). He also said that I will have to have my ACL surgically recontructed, but to confirm what he thought he asked me to go for a MRI. I was really positive and told to myself that I wouldn't need a surgery. We took the MRI and it turned to be positive, I was a little upset but still wasn't convinced. All this took like 4 days since the incident. I had not informed home about it so decided to inform them and ask for suggestions. Everyone asked me to go for a second opinion. I fixed up an appointment with another Orthopedic at the Overlake Hospital in Bellevue for the 13th. The condition of my knee had improved a lot in the two weeks. The doc. inspected my condition, saw the MRI and confirmed that I had torn my ACL completely. He too recommended a reconstruction surgery. Once again I was a little dissapointed for things were not working out the way I wanted.

Anyways, I have my surgery scheduled for the 21st. The reconstruction of the ACL is done essentially, by removing a tendon from another part of my body, drilling few holes on the femur & tibia(bones) and fixing the tendon graft across them. The graft is kept in place using couple of screws. That's funny, screws are part of the solution when you screw your knee. I have been reading a lot about this surgery and the rehab. part. This is going to be one of the toughest challenge of my life but I am confident that I will be fine. I experience this epiphany, the spiritual flash particularly during the time of crisis that gives me the much needed moral strength. I am also blessed to have have so many friends here to help me, I am really grateful to everyone and hope I can do something in return. Well, that's it for now, more coming after the surgery....stay tuned ;-)