Apparently it's simple bursitis -- inflammation of a bursa (a small fluid-filled, pad-like sac that reduces friction between moving parts like bone and skin, bone and muscle, bone and tendons, or tendons and muscles) in my knee. Sometimes referred to as "housemaid's knee," which seems vaguely insulting but whatever.
The likely causes are first, as I figured, too much front-loaded weight, and second, the fact that I change Dos's diapers on the floor while kneeling. (Another reason to try again with the potty training -- she's 3yo, for Pete's sake; why are my kids always so late? -- except that it seems pointless with a new baby on the way. Don't they universally regress or something? Ugh.)
The pain is getting worse, not better. I'm seriously considering a little trip to the drugstore tomorrow to buy a cane; that's how hard it is for me to walk around. (I've tried to improvise with things from around the house already, but nothing is quite the right height.) The only problem is, my affected knee is my "driving knee" -- the right one, the one I use to press the break or the gas pedal. It hurts to hoist myself into the car at all, and it kills to bear any weight down on those pedals.
It's pathetic. Seriously. I feel like a bona fide cripple.
I've never had a difficult pregnancy before -- not remotely! -- and this one hasn't been, either, for which I'm grateful. Thanks to a solidly sedentary lifestyle, lol, I've never been prone to injury; I've never had a sprain or a broken bone or anything of that sort. I rarely even get sick! I'm not accustomed to feeling so debilitated. (And I guess it goes without saying that I'm not accustomed to pain, lol. It has turned me into such a cry baby.)
*Sigh!*
Anyway, that's the update. Bursitis. It hurts. I can't walk very well. Only a week and a half to go before I lose a chunk of weight (and gain a daughter!), and you can bet I'll be motivated to lose the rest if keeping the weight means keeping the knee pain. :-P
~RCH~
6 years ago
4 comments:
Update: As the pain got worse and my hobbling around got more pitiful, DH began to worry that the swelling was not from fluid, but from blood pooling downstream from a DVT in my thigh. So he sent me for an ultrasound this morning to get a clearer picture of what's the matter with my knee / leg.
I am happy to report that -- although he may still think I am one for not taking my preventative heparin injections -- I will not be the recipient of the Way To Go Dumbass card he's been threatening to get me if my negligence resulted in a clot. My blood flow looks and sounds fine, and the pocket of fluid around the knee joints was clearly visible.
Also, I am now the proud owner of a $10 cane.
I'm not sure I could get more pathetic than I am right now, but at least I don't have a clot. So there. :-P
Well count yourself LUCKY! I'm glad it wasnt a DVT--I was actually begining to wonder about that but thought your doctor husband would let you know if we needed to worry about that.
And um, didn't you buy a lovely changing table for Ponybelle? Why aren't you using that to change Dos' diapers right now?
Hug, hug, kiss, kiss! And love your left elbow off!
A cane sounds very posh. I had a friend in Scotland who had to be on crutches for the last half of both her pregnancies! I think it did something horrible to her pelvis with all the extra weight.
I am also greatful it's not DVT! EEK! That's incredibly scary. Are you technically off your shots now since you're only a week or so out? I can't wait to meet Ponybelle! We'll definitely come and visit you if you're feeling up to it. :)
Feel better...you're almost there! *MWAH!*
I do consider myself lucky! And kind of stupid, lol. While I probably still wouldn't do anything differently regarding the heparin* I feel like I've gained a better appreciation of the risks I'm taking, and it is kind of scary. Humbling, anyway. :-(
And yeah, I do have a shiny new changing table for Ponybelle. I didn't want to set a precedent with Dos, though, that she could or should be climbing all over the baby's things (I've already kicked both girls out of the lovely new crib on several occasions), so we stuck to our change-diapers-on-the-floor routine. D'oh! Let this be a lesson to the rest of you: DO NOT KNEEL AND LEAN FORWARD SEVERAL TIMES A DAY WHILE CARRYING 30 LBS OF EXTRA, UNEVENLY DISTRIBUTED WEIGHT. Geez. :-P
Dos gets changed on the bed now.
Mrs. McMitchell, I wish my cane were posh, lol! It's a cheapy looking aluminum thing. If I ever have to get one for long-term use (which this one had better not be!), I want it to be a sexy carved wood sort of cane. ;-)
*Whether DH likes it or not, there is no medical consensus among OBs or even hematologists that someone in my situation, without a personal history of clotting, needs prophylactic dosing while pg. I may have a higher chance of developing a clot than someone without FVL, but I still have a better chance of nothing happening than of getting a clot. To coin a phrase, lol, it's my body and my choice -- and I do feel like it's an informed one.
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