Now what am I supposed to do!

I have continued to struggle with the crutches and my left knee is quite sore. I was stretching up to undo a door lock and the back of my knee complained quite noticeably. I had noticed that it was difficult to straighten the leg fully. It was the weekend so I headed to the A&E to get it checked out. It may have been mishandled during surgery, who knows! With my hyperextending joints it would be quite easy to twist it the wrong way.

I waited for three and a half hours with only Australian rugby programmes to entertain me. My fusion was getting very sore and it was difficult to elevate it. My pain relief was overdue and I was not feeling happy at all. I decided to pull the plug. I went to the desk and told them I was leaving.



I tried to book an appointment with my GP and could only get an appointment in four days time. So I took it and tried to baby my knee in the meantime. It was very difficult to use crutches if I needed to and even using my knee crutch put extra weight on it. I’d finished all the nice pain relief and I was just taking regular paracetamol and that was not helping my knee.

Finally my appointment came around. I’d also managed to twinge my back somehow so I was truly the walking wounded. I explained what was happening and the doctor felt it was most likely a Baker’s cyst (named after the discoverer not because they are common in bakers.). It’s where the synovial fluid in the knee increases due to an injury or inflammation and it fills the bursa at the back of the knee and bulges out.

She said there wasn’t much I could do about it apart from pain relief and it will hopefully resolve. She was against draining it because of the risk of infection. To correctly diagnose it I need an MRI. I booked one in the soonest possible slot....in two weeks time!

In the mean time I’m taking my regular medications and tramadol. It makes me a bit sleepy but since I’m supposed to be recovering it’s probably a really good side effect.

Looking up how to treat a Bakers cyst it recommends good pain relief - ticking that box, strengthening exercises - doing those, and using crutches to rest it until the pain is controlled. Well I am using crutches but not to rest that leg! My poor left leg is supposed to be responsible for moving me around and now I find it needs to rest. The cyst is supposed to dissolve back into the body but I didn’t think it has much chance of doing that since I still need to use it. There is a risk that the cyst might rupture and the fluid would drain into the calf and cause pain very similar to a DVT. If this happens you’re supposed to see a doctor urgently. Hmm good luck with that.

So my knee is complaining a bit but I’m trying to rest it as much as possible - I crawled into the shower instead of hopping. The good thing is my back is much happier with the tramadol. Hopefully that’s all I need for it. I don’t want to go back to the osteopath again. I both love and hate the cracking and I really don’t like being picked up off the table to stretch it out. It works, which amazes me since I’m a real sceptic. Hopefully all this rest will sort it out too.