Pain Barrier.....Smashed! - 15th Jan. 2013

No Pain, No Gain? Not Here......

October 13th 2010

After a restless nights sleep, I woke up to the familiar sound of my alarm with the thought of another day at University ahead of me.  I didn't mind Wednesday's, we had a relaxed timetable and the modules weren't too boring, therefore making it much easier to concentrate as it didn't put you asleep. But, something else was taking my attention that day.  When I attempted to throw my legs out of bed, I felt a stiffness in my right leg, being half asleep still I thought nothing of it and put my feet down on the floor, only then to realise that my knee, and the area surrounding it, was around 3 times it's normal size and still wouldn't allow me to bear any weight on my right leg, apart from the smallest amount on the tips of my toes....

A similar representation of how my knee looked in comparison to my other

I had a shower, brushed my teeth, the usual morning routine, but something was different, something wasn't right.  I couldn't even bend my leg enough to put on a pair of socks but I persevered and found a way, then, I tried to put on jogging bottoms, this also became a tough task, but I insisted that nothing was wrong and i'd just twisted it, it would be fine in 24 hours or so, but it wouldn't.  I went to Uni, did the day as normal, well as normal as I possibly could.  Several people questioned my limp, 90% knew it would be football related but even through my joggers, it was clear that the swelling was abnormally large and as more people questioned me, the more concerned I became and even though I was keeping it mobile, it seemed to still be seizing up, more and more as time went by.

When I returned home, I did the usual and changed to shorts and at that point it became obvious that something major was wrong.  My Mum questioned me, as Mum's do, as well as telling me how "disgusting" it looked, at the time I laughed but now I can see exactly what she meant!  My Dad was at work so there was nobody immediately available to take me to the hospital as it became apparent that I needed to see a specialist to identify the problem, but my Mum decided it was more urgent than I was making it out to be and after a phone call to my Dad I was on the way to the Royal Blackburn Hospital and waiting in A&E with all the other delights from the local area (I describe them as delights in a sarcastic manner because most go due to a slight cut to their finger or a runny nose, therefore wasting valuable NHS time and resources, which does annoy me!).

Thankfully only 2 visits to this place were required due to being a private health member

I waited an hour or so before being called into a small room and literally within 10 seconds the nurse had said "how'd you do this then? playing football?", "yes" I replied.  She then said "have you just done it now? It looks heavily swollen!" I said "no, it was last night, I've just left it for 24 hours to see what was occurring".  She looked at me in amazement, as if to say, you're crazy but I wasn't at all phased by what I had done, maybe my pain threshold is strangely high or maybe I had already convinced myself it wasn't as bad as it actually was, I'll probably never know.

I was then asked to wait a little longer, to see somebody more specialised in this field.  I waited another 30 minutes or so and was called into a more private room, asked to sit on a bed and explain how this wonderful inflammation around my knee had occurred.  After the doctor had prodded and pulled my leg and knee, here, there and everywhere, he decided it was too swollen to diagnose anything accurately, therefore, I had to return in 48 hours and he sent me on my way with a pair of crutches, leaving me with the instructions of "No sport, running or walking without the crutches, rest it as much as possible, ice it and elevate it and i'll see you again in a couple of days"