I get up and, having slept with the immobilizer off, to leave it off. The bruises are starting to color up nicely. The area of bruising still amazes me: mid-thigh to ankle, all around. I have an 11 AM appointment with Dr. Peter Vitanzo at Rothman's King of Prussia facility which is just a bit up 202 past the malls.
Peter is a non-surgical knee specialist at Rothman and a thoroughly nice guy. He's been treating the arthritis in my knees and has just finished a very successful Synvisc series in my left knee. The knee is pain free, totally. I trust Peter.
When we get there Hilary carries in the immobilizer as I crutch in. We wait a bit, and settle a problem about the referral -- the electronic referrals that Aetna now relies on are not foolproof. While I'm waiting a tech gets and takes me to the in-house x-ray suite, where she takes another set of x-rays of my right knee.
By the time the x-rays are done, the referral question is resolved satisfactorily and Dr. Vitanzo is ready for us. We head to an examining room where I hop onto the table, sans immobilizer.
Peter comes in, examines me and turns his attention to the x-rays. He doesn't think I've broken anything either, He jut thinks I'm badly bruised and the area is inflamed. I get a lecture on not using the immobilizer. I really need to where it to promote quick healing. Hilary gets to tell me: "I told you so."
The immobilizer is put on and I limp out with a prescription for some Percocet and an appointment at Rothman's Center City office the following Tuesday, the 27th.
When we get back to the car, I have to lie across the back seat with leg elevated so the door can be closed. This is not a comfortable position. We stop at a nearby sewing store so Hilary can check out the Bernina Arista 200 that she is researching.
After that and a quick Mickey D stop we go home, where I manage to keep the immobilizer on until it's time to go sleep. I'm having no trouble with the stairs. I'm slow and I back down so that a fall will put me on the stairs rather than in free fall to the foyer.
I take the immobilizer off when I get into bed and fall asleep at once. There's surprising little pain.
Aside: There's little pain because of what really happened to the knee. An MRI would have caught it, but as before the patella was the focus of attention, not the quad tendon. This is probably my fault as I told dr. Vitanzo what had transpired in the ER.
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