This is going to be quite a long post; grab a cup of tea or coffee, maybe grab some popcorn too, and let's start 😀.
It's the evening of the 25-th of December, 2023. Probably around 6:30 PM. I was on the floor, playing with my kid. When he ran to another room I wanted to follow him; I placed my left foot on the ground, pushed into the floor ... and, SNAP. Literraly, I heard the snap in my knee. The pain was bad. Really bad.
I almost blacked out, but I guess I remained conscious because my leg was locked in a 90 degree angle at the knee - I guess, subconsciously, I figured that it's a bad time to fall down like a sack of potatoes. Instead, I cursed and screamed for a good 2 to 3 minutes; in the mean time my wife brought me a chair so I could sit down.
Some of you might be saying "Dude, how the f*ck can you break your meniscus, at 35, just by sitting up?! That's BS!"
That's a fair question/point. 6 months before this accident, I slammed by knee in the corner of the car's dashboard. I was in a rush and I kind of "jumped" into the seat. Yeah ... that didn't go as planned 😀. I felt a sharp pain in my knee but I ignored it and "walked it off", so to speak. After that, I started noticing that my knee would sometimes feel a bit locked, especially when I was sitting on the floor, with my feet crunched under me. When I would straighten it, I would hear some loud pops. There was no pain so I ignored this as well. Yeah ... what an idiot, I know. I bet that was the underlying cause of my broken meniscus.
So, there I was, on a chair, unable to straighten my leg, in pain, and waiting for the ambulance. Hell of a way to celebrate Christmas, ain't it?! 20-ish minutes later, the ambulance arrived and the crew did their best to immobilise my injured leg - they failed; they had this inflatable "pillow" that had to go under my knee to prevent me from moving my injured leg. Problem was, this inflatable "thingy" was broken. They did their best, trying to improvise with some blankets - rolling them up to act as that inflatable "pillow". It didn't work.
20 minutes later I suggested we get to the ambulance without having my leg immobilised. At this point, everybody agreed that this is the best option - they were out of ideas how to imobilise my leg and I said that I will do my best to keep it locked in this position. I put my arms around the driver's and one of the assistant's shoulders and I started hopping towards the ambulance. Once I reached it, I had to "climb" in it on my knees; interestingly, I felt no pain when I kneel on my injured leg. I managed to get in and lay down on the stretcher and off we went to the hospital.
Just as a funny note, the handrail of the stretcher was broken as well - it didn't lock into place once it was up; the nurse that was riding with me in the back was holding the damned thing but I offered to hold it myself since it was kind of a bumpy ride and she couldn't sit down while also holding the damn thing up.
As a side-note, fortunately for me, I have someone in my family who is a doctor and told me that the investigations for this type of injury are X-rays and an MRI followed by surgery if it is confirmed that the meniscus is broken. The sooner the surgery is done, the better the chances of a positive outcome.
Anyway, we got to the ER and I could tell none of the nurses or doctors were happy about working on the 25-th of December. I get it, everybody has families and wants to spend the holidays together. However, it's not like I wanted to be there either; also, when you become a doctor or a nurse, you should be aware that this job is not your typical 9 to 5 job, especially when you work in the city's biggest ER hospital.
I remember that a nurse put me on an IV but didn't hang the bag on the stand next to my bed; she just left it on my chest and my blood was filling up the IV's tube. I picked up the bag and held it up with my other hand; the nurse started screaming at me to leave the bag alone; I remember saying to her that "the blood should stay inside my body, right?" - pro tip, don't be ironic with these people - they don't like it! She yelled at me "I was going to put the IV bag on the stand!". In my mind I was like "Well, why the f*ck didn't you do it already?! Wanna see if my blood is red? Did you get exhausted after poking me with the needle and wanted to take a 5 minute break?!". I "bit my tongue", so to speak, and didn't reply.
Next, a doctor came and did a quick exam and told me the next steps.
Doc: "We will straighten your leg and take some X-rays."
Idiot: "Yeah, good luck with that. I tried several times and I can't do it."
Doc: "We'll give you something for the pain."
Idiot: "Hope you have something strong, doc. What do you think the problem is? And what's next after the X-ray?"
Doc: "I think you have a broken meniscus. If your bones are not affected by the injury, we will put your leg in a cast for 21 days, and, after that, we'll do an MRI to confirm the broken meniscus."
Idiot: "Well, why not do the MRI now? If this is the test that will confirm if the meniscus is broken or not, why wait 21 days?"
Doc: No answer, started talking to the nurses.
Idiot: "Doc, what's the point of the cast if the MRI is the test that really matters? I can pay for this MRI ... I'd really like to know as soon as possible what happened and how to treat this thing."
Doc: No answer, walks away.
Idiot: Looks at nurses "Seriously, I get that this hospital doesn't have an MRI, but there are other hospitals that do - why not get the MRI today? As I said, I'll pay for the damned thing and for the ambulance trip!"
Nurses (visibly pissed off): "We'll give you something for the pain."
Idiot: Thinking to myself "I'm so happy that 10% of my gross salary goes to the public healthcare. The care we get is top notch!"
Long story short, they put me to sleep with some gas and something in the IV, they straigtened my leg, took the X-rays and when I woke up, someone was applying the cast on my leg. Again I asked to do the MRI. Again, nobody said anything. Eventually, I got back home and got some sleep on a rocking chair because I couldn't get upstairs to my bed. Lovely experience.
The next day I scheduled an appointment with an orthopedic doctor from a private hospital. A few days later, it was the 5-th of January, a friday, this doctor took of my cast, and said that I should get an MRI; he also confirmed that putting my leg in a cast was not the best decision.
Idiot: "I'll schedule the MRI ASAP."
Doctor (with a superior tone): "That's not going to work. You have to know what TYPE of MRI to get, and, more importantly, WHO does the MRI"
Idiot: "Well .. it's an MRI, it just takes the images and you get the result, right?"
Doctor: "No. But fortunately for you, I might be able to help."
He pulled out his phone and called somebody (later I found out that he called his wife, who also worked at this private hospital) and scheduled the MRI for the next monday at 6PM. I was happy. The doctor told me that it's ok if I put about half my weight on the injured leg for the next few days until the MRI and the surgery that he said was the next step.
As fate would have it, Sunday started to snow like crazy. And it kept snowing on Monday as well. This is what it looked like. The snow was about half a meter tall.
There was no way that I could've made it to the MRI. I messaged the doctor, apologized and sent him the above picture as proof. The only way I could reach the private clinic was if I had a tank. Sadly, I don't own such a vehicle. I guess he was pissed that I couldn't make it to MRI - remember, we're talking about a private hospital - these people earn money also via commisions - for example, the more MRIs you do or the more patients you operate, the more money you take home.
Point is, this doctor just ignored me from this point forward. No answer to messages or anything. The thing that really pissed me off was that he took off my cast and left me with "indications" that I could place 50% of my weight on the injured leg. I was smart to NOT do this at all, thinking that it could cause further injury to my leg. Apparently, I was right and I did the right thing by protecting the injured leg.
After I managed to get the MRI, a week or so later, I scheduled an appointment with another orthopedic doctor from the same private hospital. This other doctor was very nice and said that surgery must be done ASAP, but that he couldn't do it at this private hospital. When I asked why, he said that it's because I initially went to this other doctor, his colleague. I thought to myself "What the hell does this have to do with anything?!?". Instead, he proposed to do the surgery at the public hospital. Problem was, because of the insane amount of snow, a lot of people fell and broke their arms or legs. So, here I was, desperately needing the surgery but nobody could help me out.
After many calls, a friend put me in touch with an orthopedic surgeon from another public hospital. I finally had the surgery on the 26-th of January 2024. Because of the bad meniscus tear I had (bucket handle tear), the surgery took 2 hours. I was awake for the entire thing and the surgeon was ok with me looking at the screen.
He was really cool about it - he was like: "Here are your ligaments, here's your kneecap, here's a bit of damage to the cartilage from the injury, and ... here's your broken meniscus".
Almost 80% of my meniscus was off-place; part of it ended up between my kneecap and my tibia. That's why my leg locked at that 90 degree angle. Anyway, I want to point out that this surgeon could've just removed the entire meniscus - a meniscectomy - and be done with me in 30 minutes or so.
Instead, he really did his best to fix/repair the meniscus. I remember him briefly explaining to me "Because of the severity of the tear, we can't use a clasical suture, the part that is still attached to the tibial plateau is very small and the sutures won't hold; instead, we'll use a relatively new technique which involves two anchors to keep the broken meniscus part in place". These anchors are like some sort of screws with some wires attached to them (these wires were blue/white coloured).
Because of the severity of the tear, I had to stay with the leg immobilised for another month. Luckly, this time, the surgeon didn't put my leg in a cast but opted for an adjustable leg brace. At this point, pretty much my entire left leg muscle-mass was gone. I remember looking at my leg and it was almost skin and bone. After almost 4 months of daily physical therapy I was able to walk again and use my leg at around 80 to 90%.
The surgeon said that I should avoid any sudden twisting / pivoting with the left leg for 1 to 2 years. The only leg exercises I can do are quad extensions, femural bicep flexion, calf exercises and that's about it. I can do some half squats (meaning that I don't go all the way down - instead, I stop at an 100 degree angle), but because of the limited range of motion, it is best I avoid them entirely. Also, it's ok if I do, on average, 10 to 20 minutes a day on the cardio bike.
So, there you have it. My experience with a dumb injury I got from rushing into my car that lead to a broken meniscus that lead to a series of "lovely" experiences with both the public and private healthcare in my country. Fortunately, things worked out in the end.
Here are some things I hope you learned from all of this:
1) Never neglect an injury - the sooner you seek medical attention, the better it will be for your health; this will help avoid a much more severe injury down the line.
2) If you live in a country from Eastern Europe, which has public healthcare, don't be ironic with the staff, even when they f*ck up.
3) Even if people treat you badly (like putting a leg cast for 21 days instead of doing an MRI), don't give up and continue searching and fighting for the best medical solution. I know, some people in more civilised countries might be a little shocked, but hey, that's "how we roll" in this part of the world. Wanna get something done right, you better start learning how to do it yourself 😀.
4) Do your best to keep a positive mindset - it really helps your recovery!
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