Tough decisions

After a tough time with RSD and a bad doctor, Jacki has to make a difficult decision about accepting a Morphine Pump. Many patients will relate to her dilemma.

I am 32 years old and have four little kids. I went in for what was to be routine scope knee surgery in early 1999. This was when we lived in Cincinnati, Ohio. I was nursing a newborn baby at the time, so the doctor did the surgery under a spinal. I don't know what happened, but that is when the RSD hit...and immediately. When the spinal wore off, I was in the most pain I have ever experienced my life - and there was no way I could get up to walk, even with crutches. I kept telling them that something was wrong, that this didn't feel right. I had had a previous scope surgery on the same knee a few years prior, as I was a gymnast. They thought I just needed pain medications and couldn't have them due to a nursing baby.

The nurses called the American Paediatric Association to find out what treatments I could have under the circumstances, but the intensity of the shooting pain was still unbelievable. I was sent home anyway. Within hours, my leg started bruising and ended up turning completely black from my toes to my undies. Not sparse bruises, but solid black. The surgeon just said he had never seen anything like this in his 20+ years of practice. My leg immediately locked up and I had no range of motion. This went on from April (surgery date) into May with the doctor just acting puzzled. He ordered a CPM machine and physical therapy to try to get some motion in my leg, but it didn't work. Ultimately, in May, I tripped over my baby's toy and fell and when I did so, my leg bent completely so my toes hit my butt. OUCH!

I called the doctor and went in the next day. They gave me a MRI that showed I had torn the - oh gosh, the name of the ligament just slipped my mind.... but it tore in half, so I went in for surgery again in June of 99. The doctor "fixed" it and told me I had a giant cell tumor in my knee and that was the reason I had no range of motion; but he removed it and said that I should be fine as he manipulated my knee at full range during surgery. Once again though, it immediately locked up and was quite swollen.

Next I went to my primary care doctor as I was scared of what was going on and the surgeon was quite laid back. He ordered nerve conduction and ultrasound to check for blood clots. I still don't know if there was nerve damage, as when I got the report back, it was for a LEFT leg... my injury is in my right. There was a man right before me and I have always had the feeling our reports were mixed up. At any rate, I went back home after the open knee surgery this time. The scope incisions were not healed still and one evening, one of the small holes popped open (I know this is gross) and blood clots came pouring out of my leg to the tune of about 16oz in clots. I called the doctor immediately and he told me it was fine, that I should then feel better to not have the pressure in my leg.

From there, I went to a new surgeon... Dr. Tim Kremchek, who is the team doctor for the Cincinnati Reds baseball team. He was a miracle worker. Without him, I would not be walking today. He did another knee surgery in Sept of 99 that was quite extensive, putting some metal in the torn ligament, pulling scar tissue from my thigh, etc. This was also an open knee surgery that required about twenty staples up my leg. I was in physical therapy four days a week for about six months that was one of the most painful experiences in my life. This doctor was determined to make me walk again though, as I had been on crutches, a wheelchair and using a walker. He did talk of RSD, but with the shape of my leg, it was either confirm the RSD and not do surgery or confirm the RSD, fix the knee to a point I could walk and THEN deal with the RSD.

My knee became infected this time and during therapy when the staples were still in, burst open (I know, another gross one). I was humiliated at that point to see my leg explode… or more to the point, for others to see my leg explode. They immediately called the doctor and I went right in.