It sucks. The end.
That's the short version. This is my story about chronic pain, how I got it and how I live with it.
For reference, I am writing this blog on the 9th January 2022 at the age of 35.
Fast forward to somewhere in 2014. I'm washing my hands and as I stand there, my right knee cap just dislocates. No reason whatsoever. I get put back together and life carries on. In February 2015, I'm fast asleep. I roll over in my sleep and my left knee dislocates. Again, I get put back together. This is when the doctors think there must be something wrong. (no shit). I go for various X-rays. I go to a knee specialist. He sends me for an MRI. Turns out, both of my knee caps are slightly out of place and have always been so, I was born like it. The solution was surgery. Fulkerson's Osteotomy it's called. If you type it in to Youtube you can watch a surgery. I did not do this. In simple terms, they broke my shin, realigned it, and screwed it back in. Both legs. December 2015 was operation one. May 2017 was operation two. Occupational Health described it as a "proper hammer and chisel job".
Surgeries all went well. Really well. I was told my recovery was outstanding (insert really big smug grin). A few months after the second surgery I was back at work. I was sat in an office chair. I swung in said chair. I smacked my newly healing leg off the filing cabinet under the desk. A good proper whack. Fucking hurt. Late 2017.Left Leg X-Ray.
You can see the break
and the screws
I went to my doctor, just in case. The leg looked fine, but he sent me for an x-ray, just in case. X-ray was looking fine. Carried on with life.
Months went by and the area I smacked was still tingling. Back to the doctor I went. I was referred to a bone doctor. He did an X-ray. The screws and the bone were all fine. The bone doctor said that I shouldn't have been referred to him as it was probably nerve related.
I get referred to the pain clinic July 2019. I discussed all my symptoms with the doctor. He prescribes me a lot of medication and a course of scar infiltration treatment. Scar infiltration is where they inject the painful area with lidocaine. This numbs the area for a time, whether that's days, weeks, or months, depends on your body. I thought dislocating my knee was painful, but this treatment was worse. That first treatment made life easier for about 6 months. Yay. Then the pain slowly came back.
Eventually I go back to my doctor. I get prescribed all the drugs again, on a higher dosage and re-referred to the pain clinic. Again, I have the scar infiltration September 2021. This time, the doctor doesn't use a local anesthetic. Bastard. I almost passed out. I almost went in to shock. THAT was the worst pain ever. I had about a week of relief from the injection before the nerve pain came back.
Back to the doctor. Back on the drugs, higher dose again, re-re-referred to the pain clinic December 2021. Waiting for my appointment for another scar infiltration. This time I'm seeing the doctor I saw the first time. Not the bastard that tortured me.
I haven't even got to how it's affected work, family life, mental health etc. That will all have to be in another blog.
