I did mine in '97 , some dumb ass decided that turning right in front of me would be a good idea , my left knee shattered the rear passenger window when I hit the side of the car. I had a good idea what had happened when I stood up on the other side of the car and my leg bent the wrong way :cry:.
Th paramedic staff tried to cheer me up by telling me that what they could see of my cartlidge looked alright(big hole where kneecap had beeen). Once I got to hospital they checked me in and I was shot full of morphine (nice!).
The surgeon who fixed my knee used a couple of wires to anchor the 2 raggy ends of the tendon together and loads of supposedly self dissolving stitches .After 2 days in the hospital they got me up and walking on crutches and sent me home. It took me about 3 weeks before I was confident enough to get around under my own steam(on buses).
I started physio after about 4 weeks and I'm sorry to say this is where the real pain starts. The first few weeks were mainly massage and manipulation then the load bearing exercises started , all I can say is BLOODY ouch! you might be as hard as nails and cope well with it but I have the pain threshold of a 4 year old girl.
My self dissolving stitches didn't dissolve quickly enough, became infected and oozed masses of foul smelling puss which I needed to take antibiotics for. After 6 months I returned to hospital for the op' to get the wires removed , I'd been off crutches for about a month but was using a trekking pole for support.
At home I pushed myself quite hard when the physio felt I was able, sometimes to the point of tears but now have over 95% mobility in my injured knee which all things considered I'm happy with. I became a postman 12 months after the accident and feel that the regular exercise keeps my knee going , if I have more than 3 weeks without doing a walking duty I start to get an ache in the knee joint.
