| Re: Bruised Swollen Knee since Aug.
Hi. I'm Jenny and I've had major injuries to both knees and 14 knee surgeries. I know a thing or 2 about knees.
Yes, a bruised kneecap can stay black and blue for months as any bone bruise can do. It just takes incredibly long to heal. The fact that it hurts to the touch seems to indicate that you have surface bruising and not internal injuries to the knee but your MRI will show that if you do. It is easy to tear the meniscus with a hard impact but you haven't mentioned locking or giving away of the joint. The other thing they worry about is torn ligaments, either inside with the ACL or the collateral ligaments on the sides. How unstable is your knee when you walk or stand?
That feeling of walking/standing on jello is from all the fluid in the joint. Has anyone suggested draining the fluid?
Some of the other symptoms you mention with your back and the burning feet and the burning and tearing in your knee may be from a back injury from the fall. Muscle spasms can compress the sciatic nerve and cause that burning pain all the way down your leg. So have your back checked out too(and not by a chiropractor). You need an orthopedist who can write the medical reports you need for WC. And you most definitely need an orthopedist to give you restrictions before you get worse. You do have the right to see your own doctor and see an orthopedist you want to see....not just their doc. Check with your state's Workman's Comp website on your rights.
I checked with a lawyer the last time I was injured at work and learned I could(and should) file for WC by myself directly to the state and by-pass my company. At the same time I notified my employer's home office and the local site manager. They had 30 days to contest the injury and once that time went by, everything was covered without question. And I got back pay to the date of the injury even though I still worked. So check out your state laws. You are not at the mercy of WC and your employer...you can run the show.
But I wouldn't sweat losing your leg or anything like that. Knee injuries look bad and hurt like the dickens but I doubt you've done anything really bad. My first injury I got caught in a rock slide while hiking in the Rockies. Tore the medial collateral ligaments, the anterior cruciate ligament(inside the knee)and the medial meniscus....and I walked out of the slide and walked around for the next 2 years until I finally had it operated on. I wouldn't do that again as I destabilized my knee but back then(1966) they rarely operated on womens knees. It takes a major. major injury to really mess up a knee.
So try changing from ice to heat at this point to encourage a good blood supply. Ice keeps the bruise from healing...heat will help clear it. Ice is good for the first few days but after that, heat is best. Heat will help get rid of the fluid inside the joint too. Ice doesn't affect that. Ligaments and cartilage don't have much if any of a blood supply so anything to enhance the blood flow is good. Use an ACE bandage on it to give it stability and force the fluid out of the joint. If the discoloration is behind and below the knee cap, you may have ruptured a bursa and it will grow back but it is painful until then. Like moving a rusted joint. And if you've injured the cartilage on the back of the kneecap, it can be surgically capped with plastic but that is a last resort. You wait for the swelling to go down and then see what it's like. No one operates on a swollen knee unless there is something very wrong. They prefer to wait and see what it feels like and how stable it is.
So try to relax and don't worry too much. It is not abnormal to have that much bruising and pain after this long. And get a handle on the WC in case you do need more treatment.
Good luck and if you have any more questions, ask away.
Jenny
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