Ted, how did you hurt yourself. Fall at work or some accident?
It was 3 injuries to the same knee over a 6 week period.
First one, we were moving a patient down a steep grass hill on the gurney. I stepped in a sprinkler hole and hyper-extended the knee. All they did was ice and heat packs and put me on light duty for a week.
The second, We had a psych patient, which took about an hour at scene to de-escalate. He was calm all the way to the hospital .... until we pulled in the entrance. Then he went bonkers and started beating up on me and my partner. My lower leg / knee got stuck between the gurney and the cabinets in the ambulance. He knocked me over, twisting the knee sideways....
But--- never did anything more than an xray and cold/ hot packs. Back on to light duty for a couple weeks. At this point, pain was almost constant.
Then the third, two weeks later.... I had a new partner who was fresh out of the training academy (and she was maybe 100lbs wet). So, the 'normal' routine was off...... We had just arrived at the scene and had all the equipment on the gurney, going into the building. We had to lift it up over a high curb. When I lifted my end, my partner just 'shoved' the gurney forward with all her might. It smashed into the inside of my knee forcing it the opposite direction of the previous injury. Felt a bad "pop" and excruciating pain......
Went to the ER. Only xrays and same treatment. It wasn't until almost 3 weeks later that a doc asked if an MRI was done..., nope. Sent me for one immediately. It showed that my meniscus was shattered into 8 pieces (not including the shards), a tibial head fracture, and a torn MCL and ACL.
Surgery was scheduled within 2 weeks.
I was doing great, went through 4 months of rehab, and had returned to full time light duty. ----- until another coworker / previously my intern, came running down the hallway and jumped on my back just as I stepped out on the "bad" knee. Instant 'pop' and pain.... 2 more tears in the remaining meniscus. This resulted in another surgery to repair.
Within 4 months, the meniscus degraded to nothing and the knee was bone on bone. No more rehab / PT. Scheduled for surgery for full replacement. Then Covid hit, it was an "elective" surgery, so it got cancelled for a year.
After the replacement, Rehab and PT were going good for the first month or so. Then the swelling would get so bad they would cancel the session. The rehab people actually went into panic mode and sent me to a vascular specialist because they thought I had a clot causing the swelling. No clots found.
They even tried acupuncture..... until they could watch the swelling increase when they had the needles in..... They cancelled doing that immediately. Also cancelled any more PT.
And.... here I am, almost 2 years later, no answers, no forward progress, fighting with insurance.
There are a lot more little things that went along throughout this ordeal, but way too much to begin trying to tell. It's been a really life-changing event.
Sorry for the long post.
