Szaf And The Fracture Clinic

Wednesday 19th August 2009

I had spent the week doing next to nothing. I had sat in my chair, only moving to get the odd sandwich to eat and to get more ice packs from the freezer. I think I had also eaten my body weight in NSAIDs. I really think that I should buy shares in Neurofen!

Wednesday morning, Phil took me to Royal Surrey hospital in Guildford for my appointment with the fracture clinic.

I was seen by the consultant; who said that, contrary to what the A&E doctor had told me, I had broken a bone inside my knee. He went out to look at my X-Ray and left me for about 2 hours sat on my own.

Eventually another consultant, who was to perform the surgery I had been told by a nurse I was having, arrived to say hello and to take a look at the knee. He had a poke and a prod and gave it the usual wiggle and pull to check the ligament. The diagnosis was that I had torn my MCL (I had guessed this from the lack of lateral stability I had since the fall) and also that the ACL had pulled a chunk of bone off the tibia.

I had a very similar injury in my other knee when I was a kid, from a football injury. So I had a pretty good idea what was coming.

The consultant said that I'd need to have an MRI the next morning and come back in on Friday for the op.

Not the news I wanted to hear, but at least I knew that I could recover from this type of injury and eventually get back to my hobbies.