Originally posted by Renee Scattergood:
Last week was a complete disaster. The weekend was going great, then Monday hit. My daughter’s insomnia kicked in, which meant I was getting no sleep. Then I got sick again. By Thursday things were settling down and I was feeling better, so I spent some time trying to get caught up with writing and other work.
Next thing I knew, my daughter let out a blood-curdling scream from her bedroom. My husband and I raced in there to find out what happened, although I already knew somehow. Last year, she dislocated her knee. It was the same scream.
It was better and worse this time.
Better because the paramedics were able to pop it back in before they put her in the ambulance this time, so she didn’t have to ride all the way to the hospital with her knee still out.
It was better because she was calmer. It had happened before and she knew what to expect.
It was worse because she was so distraught over having done it again. Apparently, because she is so thin and tall, they say it may happen if she’s not careful when she has growth spurts (which she recently had). As she is growing the ligaments and tendons soften and it’s easier for the knee to dislocate. Now, at least we know whenever she has a growth spurt, she will need to take it easy and do simple exercises the physio gives her to strengthen her knee joints before doing anything too crazy.
It was worse because the swelling was much worse this time and there is some bruising, so she may have sprained it, strained it or both as well. They did an X-Ray because they were concerned she broke something, but the X-Ray came back clear. Still, there could be damage that isn’t showing up yet because of the swelling so we’ll likely have to have another X-Ray done in two weeks.
It’s worse because her recovery time may be longer this time, and she was just finally becoming confident about dancing and being her old active self again. She even wanted to start swimming again. I’m worried now she’ll be afraid to do anything that resembles activity because she’s going to constantly be afraid of dislocating her knee again. Somehow we’re going to have to convince her that the strengthening exercises and being aware of her growth spurts will prevent it from reoccurring… not an easy thing with an autistic child who becomes fixated on fearing past events.
Because the injury was worse this time, she was in a lot of pain the first couple of days. Needless to say, I didn’t get sleep again for a few days. I spent one night curled up on the end of the sofa because she didn’t want to be alone and she wanted to watch TV to distract her from the pain. I was icing her knee on and off all night on top of giving her pain medication just so she could get a few naps in here and there.
So yeah, nothing got done last week. She is finally going back to school tomorrow after all this, and hopefully, I’ll get in a normal workday. I think for this week, I just want to try and get caught up on everything I was meant to do last week.
Wish me luck!
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