29 August 2014

Housemaid

For the past week I have been incapacitated - probably by a condition called prepatellar bursitis that is colloquially known as housemaid's knee. I would prefer its common name to be something like warrior's knee or butch he-man's knee but no, the popular name harks back to a time when working women spent an awful lot of time down on their knees - scrubbing floors and doorsteps I hasten to add!

Normally, when I do any work that involves kneeling I get out my trusty square of thick foam rubber that I have found useful when gardening, laying carpets, repairing paths and anything else that involves putting weight on my knees. But last Wednesday while painting a chest of drawers upstairs, I realised I would have to kneel down for a minute or two while I painted the little legs at the base. It even crossed my mind to go down to our underhouse to get the foam mat but I had paint on my hands and knew I wouldn't be on my knees for very long at all.

On Thursday morning I woke up with a surprising pain in my left knee and it has persisted for over a week. It's okay when my leg is extended or when sitting. It's the transitional movement that sparks the pain. So there hasn't been much walking - just hobbling and quite a lot of grimacing. Getting in and out of the car has been tortuous as has climbing into bed. I keep thinking it is getting better but later I am not so sure. I have checked out most of the internet information and YouTube videos concerning  prepatellar bursitis and could now sit  a medical exam on the subject.

Linked to the injury, two other matters are now pressing on my mind. Firstly, next week I want to help our lovely daughter move flats in Birmingham. With a painful knee that makes the lifting of boxes problematic. Secondly, in just over a week we are bound for Gran Canaria on holiday and I don't want to be restricted to hobbling to the swimming pool within our little apartment complex.

Oh woe is me! ISIS may be killing the innocent, the victims of MH370 may still be lying at the bottom of the ocean, Hull City may have departed from The Europa League competition and ebola may be stalking West Africa but such matters are as nothing compared with my housemaid's knee. Come on dumb knee joint! Get better! Enough is enough.

25 comments:

  1. Would your doctor give you a cortisone shot in the knee? I could get that done over here (by my orthopaedist or my rheumatologist). It would probably give you some immediate relief and might work for a long time. I'm about ready to ask for one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mary Z - Yes I have heard about that and I could have it done for free on our National Health Service but I rarely visit doctors and would like to think my body will gradually heal itself as the bursa sac gradually returns to normal. Thanks for your kind concern.

      Delete
  2. Holiday? Didn't you just return from holiday in the US? Nice for some :).
    Housemaid's knee ~ never heard of it ~ until now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The USA/Canada holiday was ages ago Carol - beginning of June. It is stressful and tiring being a retired teacher.

      Delete
  3. YP, this seems to be a male ailment nowadays. My husband has had it, as has one of his friends who is a plumber. I have just asked his advice and he says to rest your leg as much as possible and put something frozen on the knee, e.g. bag of peas. It does take a few weeks to heal so you will just have to be patient.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How come it is we men who seem to be suffering from housemaid's knee nowadays while you women sip your martinis and text your friends? How the tables have turned!

      Delete
  4. YP, the last paragraph of your post illustrates the self-centeredness and (should I say it?) total depravity of humankind. That is, I may find a tsunami in faraway Asia mildly interesting, but if I have a hangnail it's a real tragedy.

    This is not to negate my sympathy for your current plight, however, and I do hope you find relief soon. (I am quite old enough to remember the term 'housemaid's knee'....)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, come on now. You know Mr. Pudding and you know that he was joshing!

      Delete
    2. Peace Mama - Bob Brague has licence to rib me as much as he wants. He is wheelchair bound and lives on a trailer park so sympathy is in short supply. He plays his banjo at sunset every evening - "Oh Susanna!"

      Delete
  5. Wishing your housemaid's knee (I always knew Pudding Towers is too large to be kept spic and span without the aid of qualified staff) a speedy recovery - entirely for selfish reasons, because no walks means no pictures of beautiful countryside and picturesque buildings.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It has been so frustrating this last week - not being able to get out rambling. It makes me miserable to think that injuries like this have the potential to curtail a walker's plodding. Iyt would be a nightmare to me.

      Delete
  6. DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide). I get it at the feedstore, it's made for animals, but works great on things like this. You can't get it from a doctor because it doesn't cost enough.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jan - I may look and act like an animal but I am not an animal - as The Elephant Man said - I am a human being!

      Delete
    2. Your name indicates that you're something edible. Perhaps if you changed it to Yorkshire Terrier you would at least pass as a mammal.

      Delete
  7. Okay, all the best for the gimpy knee to recover.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gimpy - that's a good word Red. I have seen it but never used it myself. I think I will add it to my verbal repertoire.

      Delete
  8. Years ago I tripped and fell heavily on my knee which resulted in Housemaid's Knee. It swelled up in a very unsightly way but I don't remember much pain. Don't remember whether I took anti-inflammatories for it or not. They seem to be the drug of choice for that type of thing. I do remember the swelling was there for quite a while. I think you are going to have to delegate for Frances' move particularly if going up and down steps is involved but swimming will be good for it. What a shame.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For me there's not a lot of swelling but a lot of discomfort. There's nobody else to do Frances's move. I am going to buy a sack trolley. That should help enormously.

      Delete
  9. I told you not to try out for the role of "Cinderella", Yorky!!! But you never listen to me!

    I hope you're full mobile and pain free very soon...like tomorrow! Take care.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lee I was going for Prince Charming not Cinders herself! Thanks for your kind concern ma'am.

      Delete
  10. Play the Glad Game YP: it's not arthritis requiring a new knee.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are right Graham, I should be rejoicing as I hobble and grimace. There are worse things by far.

      Delete
  11. I come on bended knee to offer a simple solution.
    Ask the doctor to puncture the bursar sacks behind your knees. It's there to stop the ligaments been trapped. It worked for me. I had both mine done when they got inflamed with beer and unclean women, whatever. Running up hill and down dale for over a hundred miles a week may have had something to do with it.
    It's not funny getting old.
    I lost the plot a couple of days ago but was only attacking as a defence mechanism. Not you, I rate your poetry and lifestyle. Apart from the blow up sheep. Blow up Umas would appeal more.
    I hate me when I get like that. I can offer excuses about the up her arse director but she wasn't particularly good. Then Cro somehow just tipped me. I'd read the paper and Daft Dithery saying to our Vlad of gas and oil and evil things." Watch out or Else." I just thought the daft sod can't kill a badger. I can imagine Putin thinking or else what?
    The film man and his German partner have been round and stopped for a couple of days, I lent him some big filters. She uses sequential video editors. So do I but not at the speed she can.
    Bloody hell, she's only twenty five and can use Blender 3D Like she invented it. She didn't like Lightroom. She was amazed I'd paid the thick end of a grand for CS6. Gimp does her.
    I have learned something. Iv'e learned not to look down teachers shirts and to listen wot they are learning me.
    Sorry.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. PS. I did look a bit, nice pair.

      Delete
    2. Adrian. If you looked down my blouse you would just see bulging pectoral muscles and a pelt of caveman hairs - like a badger I am. Thank you for the explanation. We are still mates - albeit online ones. When we live with hot blood in our veins we can sometimes go off on one. I am just the same in that respect. Even if I was in a Buddhist monastery in the sleepy hills of Bhutan I would sometimes yell, "Stop that bloody chanting will you and let's have a bloody good argument!"

      Delete

Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

Most Visits