Ginger Knits UK

I finally got to see a physiotherapist today. She was lovely. I've got homework, or should I say leg work (boom boom) with cute little stick men to illustrate what I need to do. We were brave and took the bus home. I sat in the disabled person seat with my leg awkwardly outstretched. I can't fully bend my knee into a bus seat space at the moment. It was fine but people really don't look where they are going. Luckily no one walked into my leg but came a bit too close for comfort at times. It was the start of rush hour. When my leg is stronger I'll try going out and about during the day, but no where near rush hour when the office zombies are out.

I went for an MRI scan of my knee last night and managed to wangle a copy of the images. Working in healthcare sometimes has it's advantages. Not that I can read the scan very well. I can work out what the main structures are but can't make any diagnosis from it, although the radiolographer did point out some bone bruising and fluid around my knee. One of the images reminds me of a famous painting.

The swelling has gone down considerably in my bad leg however it's still hard to tell if I have a knee bone. My patella creaks in a very unsettling way if I prod it. Ick ick ick. As my leg has been quite sore this week I've been taking my mind of it with sock knitting. Here's some yarn porn to counteract the icky leg. The yarn, for those of you who share my fetish, is Misti Alpaca handpainted sock orgasm, the same stuff I made my MILs Christmas socks with. I'm hoping to have enough left over to finish a pair for me. I had to stop knitting to show you this lovely magenta and green combo which fell upon my needles.

This afternoon I put on Xfm for a change to the usual radio 4. In between the endless ads, reminding me why I don't listen to it often, they played the Stones Sympathy For The Devil. Woo woo, pleased to meet you... My leg has been twitching occasionally, I presume this is part of the healing process, nerves and muscles sorting themselves out. When Mick's dulcet tones hit my ears my leg went into a bizarre knee twitching mode. Well I went with it and pranced round the lounge in a Jagger stylee. I think I'm mending. Woo woo.

...or how it doesn't. It's now been a week since I saw a consultant orthopaedic surgeon. So what's been happing? Well not much. I did get a lovely new articulated leg brace which means I can bend my knee, way better than the straight brace I picked up in France. The brace is fairly comfortable to wear but I can't work out a way to keep it up. If I do it up too tightly my leg starts to tingle when I'm sitting down. If it's too loose it falls down every time I sneeze/blink/fidget. Today I'm trying out wearing it over my trakkie bottoms. I need to see if it will stay in place or end up around my ankles, along with my trousers. This is part of a bigger plan to get out of the flat. I did manage to hobble to the local supermarket last night which is all of 300m away. The brace stayed up til I was almost back at the flat. I'm going to try and do some retrospective blogging today, I'm aiming to keep a diary of my knee, mainly so I can see how it's improv...

...and all I got was this lousy leg brace. Plus some Heparin shots, painkillers, arnica and something called Extranase which is a pineapple extract which is supposed to have anti-oedematous properties. I was surprised I didn't get any suppositories from the French doctors. Handknit socks are fantasic. When I have ordinary shop bought socks on my feet get cold, they are harder to get on and dig into my swollen leg. The handknits are so cozy, stay in place and don't leave marks on my poor leg. I'm working on my 2nd monkey sock for the Darwin Day knit along.

I'll write my saga up later, can't sit at the PC for too long as my leg gets sore.