Stuffed my big end bearing -.-''

[xwhatsit]

And by that I mean I stuffed my own big end bearing, tonight.

Did once it before, three years ago. Playing football, too busy looking at the arse of the cute girl I was playing with and fell over. Left kneecap dropped out, I pushed it back in, but did it in the wrong way and it broke against my thighbone. Months on crutches, more on a walking stick, eight pins in my kneecap, a nice `zipper' scar on my knee. Did it again tonight.

Slipped over on a wet floor in the kitchen at work, left foot twisted, kneecap popped out. Popped back in quite easily this time -- seriously painful, though. Couldn't help but scream (in a tastefully manly manner, however :)). Rang my mum on my mobile and she came and took me to Auckland Hospital. At least in this country we have a decent health system -- compared to Queensland health system at least, which was fucking pathetic. Got seen to relatively promptly by experienced staff, people doing the x-rays actually knew what they were looking at, and didn't try to bend my knee into all kinds of godawful positions in order to get a decent shot.

Thankfully, no bone damage this time, or ligaments (which is what I poked last time). Seems that pins in bones is like helicoiling the threads in your cylinder head -- stronger than the original! However there's a fair bit of soft tissue damage, and it's rather alarmingly swollen right now.

Crutches, scripts for pain relief, plenty of bits of paper for ACC and uni to chew on. Crutches blow. Last time I had the nice long wooden ones that go under your armpits. This time I have the pissarse aluminium half ones. At least I won't have to live with them for months, though. Wish I were still living in the same country as Dad, so I could pinch some of his walking stick collection (invaluable last time! Took a different walking stick to school every day!).

Bike is still sitting at work. Uncle will probably chuck it into his van for me tomorrow. I think I'm going to have to hobble out there to the garage and start her up every day so she doesn't get shitty with me. Thank god it's not my kickstarting knee...

Hope to be riding again soon. Hell, if Dr House can do it :yes:

[rainman]

Bummer, does not sound like fun. Watch out for the pain meds - I spent a while flat on my (stuffed) back and got to quite like those little pain pills! Hope you're riding again soon.

[skidMark]

and also if your out riding with heaps of meds in ya if you start to get drowsy stop as soon as you can ....and see if you feel any better...get a drink from a servo maybe...and then get home, they can be nasty if your trying to ride.

sorry to hear of it mate, yeah permanent injurys suck.

i can't straighten my left arm for the rest of my life. ( bike crash )

[Ixion]

Oh, thank goodness , it's only you that's broken . I thought you'd buggered the poor Honda again.

Sorry (really) to hear you're injured. But at least we don't have to help put you back together!.

[xwhatsit]

Oh, thank goodness , it's only you that's broken . I thought you'd buggered the poor Honda again.

Sorry (really) to hear you're injured. But at least we don't have to help put you back together!.

Hahaha! Yeah, that's what I was thinking, actually... at least ACC covers the rebuild :D

In terms of the little pills, post-op they put me on morphine and apparently I'm allergic to it. Hallucinating and 180bpm heart rate. So they put me on pethadine, which is lovely lovely stuff. This time, all they've offered me is voltaren. It's not really painful unless I try to bend it from the position it's stuck in right now -- and I have to get another 20-30 degrees before it'll fit on my footpeg :innocent:

[Madness]

I read the thread title and immediately thought of the Helicoil Insert!

Glad you're enjoying quality pharmaceuticals legally and are on the mend.

[xwhatsit]

You know, I'm no engineer -- fairly easy to work out from my reams of questions on doing even the most simple mechanical tasks when rebuilding that engine. However, is it just me, or is the knee an appallingly designed piece of crap? No lateral movement, limited movement forward and back, highly susceptible to damage from twisting. If it was done properly you wouldn't even need a kneecap. Look at the elbow... very similar range of movement, yet almost always trouble-free. What's wrong with an uprated elbow joint for your knee?

[Madness]

Might be different if you walked on your hands?

[xwhatsit]

My toes can't reach the clutch lever.

[riffer]

Yeah, the knees are a bitch all right.

I had an ACL reconstruction on mine after two years trying to cope without one - I had a similar situation to yours except it wasn't my kneecap popping out - it was the whole joint was loose and sometimes it spun around and I used to dislocate the lower leg from the bottom in a sort of twisting motion - the pain involved is very difficult to describe.

Whenever the knee twisted it used to rip the meniscus requiring arthroscopies to repair. The ACL reconstruction fixed mine but I'm still a bit wary of pushing the knee even 15 years after the operation.

Now I'm getting on a bit (40) and the other knee is starting to show the signs of stress after going 8 years with no PCL (easier to live with than no ACL) so I'm wondering when I'm going to start having dislocation problems with that knee.

Bloody lucky I don't get my knee down too much - I probably wouldn't get it up again... :mellow:

Best of luck in getting it sorted. In the meantime - Voltaren, Codeine and sleep helps, although it sucks as a long-term proposition. Hope you've got medical insurance like I do.

[xwhatsit]

Yeah, the knees are a bitch all right.

I had an ACL reconstruction on mine after two years trying to cope without one - I had a similar situation to yours except it wasn't my kneecap popping out - it was the whole joint was loose and sometimes it spun around and I used to dislocate the lower leg from the bottom in a sort of twisting motion - the pain involved is very difficult to describe.

Whenever the knee twisted it used to rip the meniscus requiring arthroscopies to repair. The ACL reconstruction fixed mine but I'm still a bit wary of pushing the knee even 15 years after the operation.

Now I'm getting on a bit (40) and the other knee is starting to show the signs of stress after going 8 years with no PCL (easier to live with than no ACL) so I'm wondering when I'm going to start having dislocation problems with that knee.

Bloody lucky I don't get my knee down too much - I probably wouldn't get it up again... :mellow:

Best of luck in getting it sorted. In the meantime - Voltaren, Codeine and sleep helps, although it sucks as a long-term proposition. Hope you've got medical insurance like I do.

Heh, poor bastard, I hope mine don't end up as an on-going thing. Isn't the pain marvellous? It sort of takes your breath away.

My issues, I think, are at least partly genetic. Useless knees in both sides of the family, shoulders too. Dad has problems with his back, too, but that was mostly caused by crashing off a hill into the upper branches of a kauri tree at 160kph. Head sticking out the rollcage.

No medical insurance, because it was at work I think ACC should cover the lot, shouldn't they? When I was in Australia and had the operation to pin it back together I did have medical insurance, which was good, because the surgeon used some newfangled pins made from unobtanium that cost multiple thousands of dollars. When I went for the follow-up, he asked, `oh... do you have medical insurance? Oh, good. Those pins weren't very cheap'. :innocent: At least the public health sector here is adequate; I had to go private in Aussie to get any quality treatment.

Got my bike home, Uncle rode it home (after trying to start it for 10 minutes, LOL! He doesn't know the exact choke position and throttle treatment... there's an art :D). Mum drove behind with me. Sounds a funny little thing, purring away like a cat. He looked quite ridiculous on such a tiny bike; he test rode a CB1300 earlier in the week, looks like he's getting back into biking after a long time.

Once in the garage, tried to swing my leg over the saddle but it wouldn't quite get high enough. Might have to try from the other side if I can get in. Would like to at least be able to start her every so often, keep the oil flowing about.