ADDENDUM 4/16/08: I just got back from the follow up visit to the doctor. I have a horizontal tear in the meniscus. That requires surgery.
Oh happy day.
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I was at work last night, happily keeping all my clients on schedule as we prepared for a group session. The clients had just finished their dinner and were completing their chores right on schedule.
In the past, when such things have happened to me, it seemed to happen in slow motion. Not this time!! This time it all happened in a nano-second. Everything was going along swimmingly when . . . S P L A T. I found myself laying on a wet floor, trying to figure out how I was going to get up.
For a while all I could see was red - the pain in my left leg was overwhelming. I laid there for just a few seconds (but it seemed an eternity) before my brain could process what had happened, and how to actually get up. Funny, I remember thinking . . . "I've fallen, and I can't get up!!" LOL
My left leg was under me. My right leg was in front of me, but twisted in an unnatural manner. I could hear people talking in the other room, but they seemed miles away. At this point I thought of the audio and video surveillance that is constantly recording all that happens. I gave myself a proverbial pat on the back for not allowing a string of expletives to escape my lips, considering how mad and frustrated (and embarrassed) I felt at the moment.
I tried to get up, to no avail. My left leg had become totally useless. One of the clients and a co-worker reached me by this point. They kept asking me if I was all right, and all I could do was shake my head "no". They graciously tried to help me up but the way I landed, it just wasn't working. My co-worker laughed at me when the first words out of my mouth were to the client . . . "Be careful that YOU don't fall!"
I asked them to just let me see if I could get up myself. I managed to get my right leg untwisted. Then I attempted to get my left leg out from under myself. I've not had pain like that in a very long time. (Labor pains from the birth process came to mind.) After a few attempts, I finally was able to stand by "crawling" up the wall, using it for support.
I kept saying that I'd be all right, and hobbled to the group session. I sat there the entire time (a full hour) determined not to show the excruciating pain I was feeling, and the group went on as intended. I admit, I was so pleased when the session was over. I had a very difficult time getting back to my office where I was determined to do the documentation of the group session. And I did. Tearfully (since I was behind my office door) but I did it, by golly!
They wouldn't let me drive myself to the hospital. (Ok, ok!! That's probably a good thing. But it still ticked me off.) A co-worker drove me, in my car, to the ER. The pain was worsening by the moment.
Two hours and much prodding and poking and pain later the diagnosis is a torn ligament behind the left knee cap.
At least it's not broken.
