This Is Not an April Fool

A freak accident happened on Thursday evening. I was sitting at my desk and decided to raise my chair an inch which is something I’ve done many times before. Only trouble is this time the joystick got stuck against the edge of my desk so my chair kept raising higher and higher pushing my legs against the bottom of the desk. I couldn’t reach the switch to make it stop so I yelled or probably screamed for Norm to come and help me. After a minute of confusion he figured out what to do and got me out from under the desk. The chair won’t move when it’s in the raise mode otherwise I would’ve just put my chair in reverse.

I was sitting in my chair with my left foot resting on my right knee so both my knees and my left ankle took the brunt of the pressure. I felt a pop in both knees and after we got me out from under the desk Norm moved my legs and I started to feel swelling along with intense pain.

Afraid that I had broken something we went straight to the ER and three hours later learned that nothing was broken, but I was in excruciating pain. They gave me a Percocet not long after I got there and then before I left a shot of Demerol. We filled the prescription for Percocet at our local pharmacy and went straight home. By then it was nearly 10 o’clock and I was feeling the effects of the Demerol.

Norm gently put me to bed but it was no easy task since I was in excruciating pain every time we tried to move my legs. During the night I took Percocet every three and half to four hours which was probably too often but I was in excruciating pain. I didn’t get out of bed until noon the next day and I still felt extremely woozy even though I hadn’t taken any medication since eight o’clock that morning.   I had bruises all over my thighs and knees.

Long story short — the medicine made me very sick and I had to go see my doctor to get something for the vomiting since I couldn’t even hold down water. They gave me a shot of Phenergan which added to my woozy feeling but did stop the vomiting.

Yesterday I felt a very slight improvement and somewhat less pain on moving my legs. My knees are still very swollen today and I’ve been putting warm compresses on them throughout the day as well as taking Advil every six hours. It’s difficult to find a comfortable position since I cannot cross my legs because of swelling in my knees. At least I don’t have excruciating pain — it’s just bad pain.

Most of my day is spent with my chair in a reclining position to keep my legs elevated so it’s difficult to do any work at my computer. I pray the swelling goes down soon so I can start to move my legs more comfortably.

1 Comment

  1. Tracy
    Apr 2, 2007

    🙁 Karen,
    I am so sorry you had such a terrible experience this last week. I am prayinhg that God will heal you quickly & bring you much needed relief! I am sure Norm is feeling helpless at this point since he cannot stand seeing you in pain. Our thoughts are with you both.