say "hi" to your knee

When my sister and I were kids, we loved that joke.

About two weeks ago, I twisted my ankle and fell, onto the sidewalk, knee-first, as I was getting out of a car. I scraped up my right knee pretty badly. I treated it with peroxide, band-aids, and neosporin until scabs formed. I thought nothing of it, really. I went swimming in Barton Springs Creek, went to the gym, practiced yoga, went to a few parties, and taught my first classes this week.

Yesterday evening, as I was leaving my office, I noticed a slight pain on the top of my knee, almost like a spider bit me. When I got home, I took a look -- no bite, nothing but the just about healed scab, but the knee-cap was so sensitive and painful. Hot. A few hours later, it was hard to walk. I took some extra-stregth tylenol and drank some chamomile tea, put the knee on ice, and googled "suddenly my knee is killing me" and "why is my knee so hot?" I checked WebMD and called my dad, who sells artificial knee implants to hospital emergency rooms. He told me it sounded like I got bit by a spider and recommended amputation.

At 2am I woke up with some really bad, throbbing pain. I couldn't move the knee very easily, but I got up to take some more tylenol and worried the rest of the morning about what was wrong with me. I called out of work sick and went to the doctor's office around 10.

My doctor tells me the knee is swolen from a subcutaneous infection. Gross! I'm also running a fever. I got a nice big batch of antibiotics and anti-inflammatories to treat it. I spent the day dozing and re-reading The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. It already feels better, but it'll be a while before I am swinging from the chandeliers. I go back tomorrow for another visit.

The irony of all of this is that, for the past few months, my left knee was suffering from a tear in its cartilege, and it hurt like hell. It finally started to feel better when I kissed the concrete.