A Bad Case of Kneesles

Over New Year's weekend, Thing 1 had a little slow speed (VERY slow speed) tip over on his dirt bike.  However, he managed to hit his knee right smack in the middle of his knee cap, which caused considerable pain.  Enough pain that we had to keep him pretty much doped up until we could get back to civilization and to the doctor.  It was obvious that Something Was Wrong with his knee:

By the time we got home, his knee was the size of a large grapefruit.  We took him to our regular doctor who told us that x-rays weren't necessary because it was just water on the knee and ice packs and Motrin were all that were needed and Thing 1 would have full mobility within a week and have a nice day buh-bye now.

A week later, the swelling is still there and Thing 1 can't lift his leg.  He can move it in a backwards kick but he can't move it forward.  And there's a dent that runs straight across his knee from left to right.  So we go back to the doctor who says the knee just needs to be drained and then it'll be fine.  He still insists x-rays aren't necessary.  Oddly enough, when the gigantic needle was inserted into Kevin's knee, no fluid came out but the doctor told us more ice packs and Motrin and Thing 1 will be fine and have full mobility within a week and have a nice day buh-bye now.

So Thing 1 goes to the Sports Injury person at his school who tells him it's NOT water on the knee and to go and see the Orthopedic Specialist who takes care of their football team.

This was on Friday.  On Saturday, Thing 1 is out in the desert for Round 1 of the Kenda National Hare & Hound Series.  He spends Saturday riding his Blais Racing Services KTM 250 (getting a few plugs here) and thinks he'll be ok to race the National the next day.  He wasn't.  He made it about 8 miles into the race when his knee was hurting too much so he threw in the towel.

Yesterday, we get in to see the Orthopedic Specialist.  The first thing they did was take x-rays, which our regular doctor said wasn't necessary.  This is what we saw on the x-ray: 

 

That thing that looks like a bird beak on the right is his knee cap.  Broken clear across.  Water on the knee my ass!

Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning.  When we saw the x-rays, I started laughing, in a derisive snorting kind of way because I was so pissed off and disgusted that we'd been given the runaround for 3 weeks by our now-ex physician.

What we thought was going to be an hour and a half office visit turned into an all-day affair due to pre-surgery lab work and early admittance paperwork.  What was worse was that I had not brought any cash with me and while we were in the hospital lobby waiting to do our admittance paperwork, the cafeteria was steps away and the most delicious smells kept wafting over us and we were STARVING!  I managed to scrape up enough change to buy 2 candy bars from the hospital gift shop to tide us over.

So because of the first doctor's refusal to do his job, Kevin's racing season is over before it's even started.  He'll be out of commission for the next few months what with recovery and rehab.  Luckily, his team owner is being very understanding and told Kevin his place on the team is safe, which is what Kevin was most worried about.

So tomorrow I get to spend the day in the hospital while my baby boy goes under the knife.  Luckily it's Same-Day surgery but I'm still all worried.  Kevin's biggest fear is not the surgery itself but the IV because it requires needles in his hand and/or arm and Kevin has an acute fear of needles to the point where he will start flailing around in freak-out mode and require smelling salts.

It's gonna be a real barrel of laughs around here during the recovery period.  I know I'll be on full-time hop & fetch duty and trying to keep Thing 1's whining down to a minimum.  Yeah, I know.  Good luck with that.