Monday 3 July 2017

Life Update: Pain and Progress


If you were wondering why I started my blog when I did, the truth is I'd been off work with an injury and I had lots of spare hours to put some work into setting up and getting a good number of posts written in a fairly short space of time.

My injury was the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my entire life (and I'm pretty unlucky/accident-prone, I've had more than my fair share of painful things!),and who would have thought that it was caused by this gorgeous boy? 


Let me take you back. 
I'd arranged a surprise visit with my Auntie (mum's sister) to come and visit as we hadn't seen her in a while, and we decided to go for a walk. Feeling a bit lazy (and it being rather warm!), I didn't really fancy it but I decided to go anyway. Now, this might sound a little bit crazy (you have to believe me!) but my dog, Jack, chases trains. A train track runs parallel to where we walk him and he tries his very hardest to catch them (don't worry - there is a fence between the path and the track!), and the SPEED he runs at is just unbelievable. I can't even express it in words; it's something you don't believe unless you've seen it with your own eyes. Think galloping, charging horse crossed with a racing greyhound for a rough idea. 

This sets the scene pretty well for what happened next. There being more of us out for a walk than usual, and being on a very narrow path, a train began to approach at the worst time possible. We hadn't been walking any longer than about 2 minutes, and Jack's ears prick up at the sound of a train thundering a little way down the track. He begins to run in the wrong direction, away from us for some time until he is out of sight. Realising he's gone the wrong way, he comes hurtling back towards us and he gets confused as there are more of us than usual; we're covering most of the path. He can't slow down at this point, and my knee takes the brunt of the force of him at a ridiculous speed. 

The minute or so that follows is a blur. The next thing I know, I'm on the floor, gasping for air and feeling like my left leg has been turned inside-out. I can't move. I can't breathe. Now, this all sounds very dramatic I know, but the pain is unbearable. I was winded from hitting the ground like a sack of spuds. I figure out that my knee had bent back the wrong way. My dog is standing over me wondering why I'm on the floor. It must all look pretty odd to any passers-by that there might have been. After I manage to get my breath back (but still howling), my mum, dad, and boyfriend make a joint effort to scoop me up from off the floor. I insist that my parents continue walking with my Auntie and Uncle as they haven't seen each other in so long and I don't want to ruin their day (they have driven 2 hours to come and visit!). Sean manages to get his sobbing mess of a girlfriend into the passenger seat of his car (thank GOD he drove!) and we head home. I ice my knee and call 111, not wanting to waste hospital time by going to A&E if it was just a sprain. I talk to the lady on the phone, and she tells me I need to get to hospital. Fab. 

I cannot fault my local hospital one bit. They were great with me, and I only had to wait about 20 minutes before I was seen. I had some x-rays which confirmed I hadn't broken any bones, but they were super concerned as my knee was so unstable. This is when they began to doubt whether or not my PCL (a ligament that connects your thigh-bone to your shin-bone, behind your knee) was intact. Further examinations and an MRI scan confirmed that my PCL had torn. Typical me.


My consultant said that these types of injuries are rare. They most commonly occur during a road traffic collision when a shin hits the dashboard, moving the shin bone backwards. Which is essentially what my darling dog had managed to do. Now do you believe how fast he runs?! The downside is PCL's don't repair themselves - they require surgery. Because they are so rare, not many of these types of procedures get done in a year. Fortunately, my consultant tells me that I can try and build up the muscles in my knee to make things a little more stable. So the plus-side is that I might be able to avoid surgery AND that I literally must go to the gym now. No getting away from it this time!

Fast forward a few weeks and I'm doing a lot better. It's still painful, but I'm out of the brace and I'm off of the crutches. I'm still off work (for a few more days) but I'm allowed to drive again. Me and Jack are still inseparable (he'd be mortified if he knew what he'd done!). Another plus being I got sent some beautiful flowers and spend a lot of time in lots of my fave PJ's. Every cloud has it's silver lining! 











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1 comment

  1. That's great that you're starting to feel better. I just found your blog. I'm a new beauty blogger as well.

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