Tag Archives: knees

jfc ffs

01 Wednesday Oct 2025

Posted by in health, hospitals, knee saga, knees, sevilla

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Remember my disappointment with the “nothing burger” visit to the knee surgeon in August? Aside from being given a cortisone shot (which did absolutely nothing) I was also sent down for updated x-rays so they could see the state of things now, and I was reassured that my next appointment wouldn’t take so long as I was now “in the system” as priority. Then I was sent home with a new set of pain killer prescriptions and was told to lose weight, go to the pool, ride a bike, etc. BUT at least I thought I’d be seeing the surgeon again as soon as the new x-rays were ready.

A month later there was still no news, and for some reason the doctor’s report was not on the Clic-Salud website, so I went down to my health centre to request a copy. This is what I got… 

History: 68 years old. Referred for right knee pain lasting approximately two years. Reports mechanical pain, with limited ability to walk long distances and work (tour guide). Does not take pain medication.

Examination: Overweight. Right knee with negative brush test. Pain in medial compartment, BA 0°-120°. Stable. Additional tests: Last x-ray 2023: incipient gonarthrosis.
MRI of right knee: Grade II femoropatellar and internal femorotibial compartment gonarthrosis with internal meniscus tear and chronic overload of the internal collateral ligament. Joint effusion.

Action plan: After signing the informed consent form, I performed infiltration of the right knee with mepi + trigon. No incidents.

Treatment: paracetamol 1 g every 8 hours, tramadol 50 mg every 12 hours, arcoxia 60 mg every 24 hours during periods of increased pain. Weight control and exercises. Follow-up in 3 months with X-ray.

FOLLOW-UP IN 3 MONTHS. There was never any intention of seeing me sooner. And according to the Defensor del Puebo, for follow-up appts to specialists, 3 months is the maximum wait time allowed. So they went for that. 

Also… limited ability to walk long distances?? How about ANY distances, like I told her, and not without extreme pain. I mean, she saw me hobble in there on my crutches. Well I guess this is how it feels to be “just a number” in the system. I am not being treated as a whole person but as a jumble of symptoms and they are simply following protocol without, well, caring. Just get me in and out asap, fill out the report showing they followed protocol, and push the next appt to the maximum time limit. It’s very hard for me to accept that this is my life now and to feel so helpless. 

supplements are go!

09 Tuesday Sep 2025

Posted by in health, knees, sevilla

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Not sure why I didn’t do this sooner, or even if I should be doing it now, but no way I’m going to take a fucking opioid (Tramadol) twice a day for three months in case it makes me feel better. And who knows when I’ll hear back from the knee surgeon to discuss the the results of the new x-rays they took that very same day. Then I remembered that when I saw the other, nicer, kinder traumatologist in June (about my shoulder) she had suggested taking this collagen supplement (two months on, one month off). Around the same time my GP had suggested something called Nubit for my neuropathy, which began during chemo and frankly ain’t getting any better. So decided to go for it, ordered both of these today and let’s see what happens.

not the hand!!!

03 Monday Feb 2025

Posted by in health, sevilla, weather

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Fucking hell. Booked blood test appointments for both me and Peter about ten days ago, of course not knowing that on this particular day, and only for the time we’d be having to get from the house to the Health Centre, it would be totally bucketing down like fuckity. Got there totally soaked through and exhausted (had to get by with only one crutch so I could carry the umbrella) and then OF COURSE the nurse couldn’t find a vein. So eventually I got it IN THE HAND. Damn that hurts.

Walked out of the centre and it was all blue skies and I mean wtf. But whatever. Went for breakfast, came home and thought… well that’s Monday done (it was only 11.00 am). Turns out it wasn’t done, but there was no way I was going out again. One thing this one crutch plus umbrella experiment proved is that I really do need both crutches to walk outside. I mean, yes I can walk without crutches (like I do at home) and even outside with just one (like today) but the result of walking without proper support is that it fucks me up. At home I only have to get from one room to the next one, outside the streets are uneven, and I’m obviously walking for a longer stretch. And it really hurts.

Because while it also hurts at home, and I end up walking like a penguin, it only hurts from the living room to the bathroom, or wherever. Not the same as hurting for half an hour or more on a walk that should only take ten minutes. Avoiding the penguin walk also means I am able to walk correctly and upright and avoid doing even more damage to by back, hip and all those other joints. So… crutches it is. For the foreseeable…

I’m walking here!

28 Monday Oct 2024

Posted by in health, knees, sevilla

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im walking here

As I become more and more mobility challenged oh boy am I developing not only a lot of extra empathy for people even more challenged than me but I am also not afraid to let stupid and selfish able-bodied assholes know just how stupid and selfish they are being. I don’t know why. Usually I avoid confrontation like it was Covid, but maybe because this is still relatively new for me I still don’t quite personally identify with being “disabled” so it feels like I’m standing up for others? Whatever. This is what has been happening.

I walk down the street, slowly and painfully hobbling along with my crutches, clearly not walking with any ease of motion. And then… PEOPLE GET IN MY WAY. By this I mean a group of people will be walking up a street and somehow expect me to move over for them… or on one of our many narrow sidewalks here where only one and half people can actually walk abreast, some of them think I’m the one who is going to step out into oncoming traffic to let them by. What the fuck is wrong with these people?? I’m hobbling. I’m using two crutches. Going very slowly. And well, since I’m kinda new at this game, it totally pisses me off because I haven’t yet got to the point of accepting this and, frankly, I don’t plan to.

So what do I do? Well, I simply stand my ground. I’m not moving out of the way for fucking anybody. And the result is, of course, they have to move. Good. They have perfectly functional limbs. I guess I’m also thinking that I am taking a stance for all of us who can’t get around so easily… to make other people aware that they should be more aware. And just basically be polite.

The other issue here is on our narrow one-way streets in the centre, many of which have signs posted saying PRIORITY PEDESTRIANS AND CYCLISTS. For the most part cars and taxis expect people to huddle in doorways to let them pass as there is usually no sidewalk to speak of. Twice this past week this happened to me and I was like… what the fuck is wrong with you?? You’re sitting comfortably in a car, you are coming up a pedestrian prioritised street, you see someone hobbling along on crutches and YOU EXPECT THEM TO PAINFULLY CLIMB ONTO A NARROW CURB AND HUDDLE IN A DOORWAY FOR YOU?? Well fuck that shit. Both times this happened I stood my ground. The cars approached when I was already half-way down the street but they just kept coming even though there were several other people walking in the street (and diving into doorways). Not me. I stood in the middle of the street and motioned that they had to back up to the square (because they shouldn’t have entered the street in the first place if they saw pedestrians). And both times I got so much support from onlookers saying “you tell ’em”, “take your time señora”, “they are the ones in the wrong”… which was quite uplifting.

So expect me to be doing my Ratso Rizzo thing all over town for the foreseeable. I’m walking here!