Yesterday Joe was out in the snow and slipped on the ice and landed on his knee (Bad leg). He landed in the region where the stitches are and the leg swelled up really quickly. We took him straight to hospital and 6 hours later and God knows how many assessments and an Xray later we had a couple of surgeons come in and vaguely suggest that he's probably damaged his Tibia at the top, on the edge of the plateau. Having had dodgy knees I had some sense that this was pretty serious. They then offered the option of either having a cast or not, I opted for a cast as a precaution. Because we're scheduled to see the Surgeon on Friday, it was decided that we'd wait till then before having a proper diagnosis and they kind of seemed reluctant to tread on the toes of someone that was already working with the leg. The advice when we left was to keep the weight off the leg for at least 24 hours.Since coming home I've looked up what it may be and the prognosis doesn't look good especially in view of the fact that in six weeks time Joe would have been free to start doing sport again and getting back to normal. If it is fractured and its on the edge of the Tibia plateau it's a really serious break albeit small. It seems because it's broken behind the cruciate ligament and at a point where all the bodies weight goes through and does so in a dynamic way, this break is (1). Difficult to operate on. (2). In a really important load bearing part of the body. This means that if it is diagnosed as being broken, form what I've seen on the internet, Joe will be back in a full length cast for some time and not able to put any weight through his leg for up to 3-4 months. I'd imagine that the situation will then exacerbate the situation with the existing Tib/Fib break and prolong his recovery from both for at least the whole of the summer.
I'm just praying that the xray was showing up something that is a result of the recent operation and that there isn't any break or if there is a break is a crack type fracture with no bone having come away from the tibia. If there is, it looks as though it'll be another op and more pins. I am devastated, I was so looking forward to a summer of cricket and surfing with Joe and Ben and it looks like there's a chance that's all runined.
Additionally this causes problems with school as well and all the things indoors with regards sleeping arrangements. Other issues will be that because Joe's leg is in plaster he can't massage his scars either and he's also got a ecszema type condition on his leg which he has to apply cream to, that's now covered by the plaster too.
All this is speculation of course, Michelle has called the surgeon today to see if our appointment can be brought forward, so as soon as I know anything more I'll update.
