Knee Issues

So many of you saw this picture last night on Facebook. I posted it and asked if my FB friends what they thought. Many agreed that yes, indeed it was swollen.

Last week while dancing in her room, Tanner felt and heard her knee pop. It hurt and she came out complaining. We shrugged it off, she quit dancing and life went on. She continued to complain off and on but I figured it was nothing major. Monday night she played softball. Though not like normal, she ran. She played catcher for an inning. When the game was over, she said her knee hurt. Again, being the bad Mom that I am, I told her to shake it off. When I woke up yesterday morning she was already awake and said she couldn't move her knee/leg. I gave her some Tylenol and she went back to sleep. When she got home after school last night her knee looked like the picture above and she was hardly walking. We iced it and she took some more Tylenol and we had an easy night.

This morning it wasn't as swollen though she was still sore and having a hard time walking. I called the Dr and we saw her today at 2:15. Dr. Froman looked at her knee, poked it, prodded it, and said "something is torn." She said she didn't know what, but that due to the swelling being all over and where the pain was located, something was more than likely torn. She wanted us to go upstairs to the Rehab place and see a Physical Therapist. She said that they could diagnose and rehab it better than her. She said she could refer us to the Ortho but the Ortho is just going to refer us to PT before doing anything else.

(Let me just say that I absolutely LOVE Dr. Froman-she's been our Dr for 12 years and she's not been wrong yet. I trust her completely-not saying she's perfect-but saying that I completely trust her.)

We went upstairs to the PT place and luckily they were able to see her. The PT looked her over and poked, prodded and did some more testing. She said she thinks she's either got an ACL or MCL tear. She wants to do five PT sessions and see how she does. She's hoping that she can and will improve her range of motion and decrease her pain during those five sessions. If not, she will refer to her to an Ortho. She said that at this point, going to an Ortho now, would only land us back in PT. She had Tanner do some exercises and gave us some stuff to do at home and we'll go back on Friday.

Needless to say, Tanner's softball season is over. Tanner is crushed to say the least. Poor baby girl. She just cried and cried. In fact, Dr. Froman left the room and when she came back, she said "Oh Honey, don't cry." I looked up and Tanner just had tears running down her face. My sweet girl was sitting there, quiet as a church mouse, but just crying away. Bless her heart! Dr. Froman sat up on the table, put her arm around her and comforted her!

Once we got in the car to come home, Tanner just let loose and really started crying. I felt so bad for her! I told her we can and will still go to the games, she can still wear her uniform and sit in the dugout...she just can't play. Steve beat us home and once we went in, Tanner just dropped her bags and climbed in Steve's lap and cried her heart out. It was so sweet! I think she just needed to let it all out and what better place, huh??

I've had several people question why we haven't demanded an MRI or to go an Ortho. In fact tonight, I was thinking "Am I a bad Mom because of this?" I talked to a friend from high school on Facebook who works for an Ortho Dr in KC. She said this is exactly what her Ortho's want someone to do. Talking to Michelle really made me feel better about our decision to do the PT.

So that's the latest drama in our house. Steve said tonight "Babe, I'm not sure how much more drama this family can take!"

Amen!