You call that a kneebrace? Now this, this is a kneebrace

Cheerful Annette w/ Kneebrace

Originally uploaded by steven_d_krause.

As a preface, let me say that this is exactly the sort of reason why Annette (and everyone else, for that matter) needs a blog. But since I’m the one who has one and this seems to be the outlet for news in our household, here we are.

Second, let me also say that I am certain I will have some of the details about what exactly Annette has wrong and what she is/will be going through incorrect. My bad in advance.

Okay, with that out of the way:

As loyal readers will recall, Annette had an unfortunate and rather badly timed spill at the end of June that ended up with a trip to the emergency room and all sorts of fun. Originally, the thought was it was just her ankle, but as the ankle has gotten better, the knee seems to have gotten worse.

So, it was back to the doctor who called for an MRI, which took place last Sunday at 10 pm. Apparently, they run these machines 24/7. In the nutshell, Annette reported that the MRI experience was uncomfortable, generally unpleasant, and very loud, but at least she didn’t have to go headfirst into one of those big tubes.

Today she went to orthopedic surgeon to get the results. It seems that she has messed up her knee sehr gut (trying out my German for our European vacation, doncha know). The list that she’s given me includes:

• A torn ACL (which is not good, btw);
• A bruised bone (she thinks it’s the tibia); and
• A torn tendon (or perhaps other tendons would be more accurate).

So, what’s going to come of all this? Well, Annette starts physical therapy tomorrow with the short-term goal of getting her to a place where she can hobble around in Italy and Germany in about two weeks. Long-term is to avoid surgery, which, since she is not a high performance athlete, is probably pretty possible.

Oh, and she also got this totally bitchin’ and custom-fitted leg brace:

Very high-tech and Darth Vader-like, if you ask me. Lord only knows how much it actually costs; fortunately, since this was prescribed and since we have good insurance, it was all paid for.

Now of course, the bad news is that this will ultimately be a long recovery, certainly longer than Annette (or me or Will, for that matter) would have preferred. It’ll be hard enough getting her ready for tourist stuff in a couple of weeks. But the good news is that she’s gotten a more definitive answer as to what is wrong and she has a more clear course of action: lots and lots of physical therapy for the next two weeks.

So stay tuned. Unless Annette uses this experience to finally start a blog of her own….