Shifting Pins

The problem with this knee injury is that when one problem starts to get better, another one raises its head! Over the past few weeks, I've been plodding on with the exercises, working on the ROM and quad strength simultaneously. Having finally got the quads to fire up again and the ROM past 90 degrees it now appears that the pins have shifted again and are causing a range of stabbing pains at various points around my knee cap.

Initially, when I get a "new" pain I tend to wonder "what's causing that one now?!" ... and then I check the Xray (see previous post) and realise that the pain is actually happening in or around an area where a pin or wire either goes into, comes out of or curves around a piece of bone! Its seems that as the swelling and scar tissues are healing, the hardware is becoming more prominent and alllowed to move around more easily. The latest thing this week is the appearance of a "bruise" where the pins are poking into the skin - I haven't knocked or bumped it so can only assume I'm bruising from the inside out?!

View of the bruise below right of my knee cap

Bruising from the inside out ?!

The protruding pins that are causing the bruises

Hence, as I'm working through my regime I'm getting new pains and twinges on a daily basis. Its like a guessing game, which bit will dig in today?

I have to admit its very frustrating! I still want to work on the ROM and the strengthening exercises, but each day there is something new to hold me back. A few weeks ago, a shifting pin at the top of the knee cap dug into the tendon so bad that I was unable to exercise the quads properly for a while and they began to fade away again. I don't want this to happen again, so I am dealing with it by only doing the exercises each day that don't give me pin stabs. If today the wire under my knee cap catches when I try to push the ROM, I will just concentrate on the quads. If tomorrow the pins at the top or side of my knee are digging into a tendon, I will just work on the ROM instead. Luckily, I haven't had a day when ALL of it hurts together yet!!

I can't have the hardware removed yet because the skin over and around my knee is still shiny and mottled. This apparently indicated some minor nerve damage that is still not healed and until that calms down the surgeon won't cut through the tissue again. Not sure how long it will be, a few months perhaps, but it will have to come out eventually and I can already imagine how much better it will feel when its done.

MUA Cancelled, Hardware Removal Postponed

Well the jury is out on the MUA and my doctor has decided that it doesn't need to go ahead. He feels that although my Range of Movement progress is slow (70-90 in two weeks), it is nevertheless steady and the strength in my quads is building (also slowly) so he doesn't want to disrupt that. 

The sudden pain that started last week, just above my patella is apparently a shifted pin, digging into the ligament there. It only occurs when engaging my quads when my leg gets to about 20 degrees. Before 20 degrees, no pain - past 20 degrees, no pain hence the feeling that its a shifted pin causing it. He felt that the hardware should probably be removed, but because the skin over my knee is quite tender and shiny, indicating possible scar tissue/nerve healing problems, he doesn't want to go ahead and cut it open again just yet. So I have to wait a little while longer for that, and basically keep doing what I'm doing with PT for now.

He also suggested that I need to move onto using just the one crutch now and agreed that I can arrange a date to return to work. Driving may be a bit more of an issue, so I'll need to find a way around that for now, but the doc said that as soon as I feel confident enough to have a go at it I can go ahead and try.

So all good I guess ... not sure my Physio Therapist will see it that way when I see him tomorrow, he was quite keen to have me get the MUA done! To save him some work maybe ......?