Euflexxa

Last Sept I had gotten the Euflexxa injections in my knee. It was to hopefully help make it feel better and I was hoping it was going to be successful. The Euflexxa injections are a series of injections. It is one injection a week for 3 weeks. Obviously it didn't help long term because I had surgery again this year in Feb.... so anyway as I am recovering from the ACL reconstruction I had back in Feb I am still having some problems. On the 4th I had a major issue with it. I had gone in the morning to the car show in Fillmore with some friends. I had known that during classes and such I was getting sore more regularly and so I prepared myself. I brought my cane with me, I took a pain pill before we went and I put on my knee brace. Than after I went to lunch with some friends and came home packed by swim stuff and went to a pot luck pool party at a friends house. I spent a lot of time in the pool and jacuzzi that afternoon/night. I didn't think much of it because it felt fine and I know that in the water there is less resistance. So I figured it was actually good for my knee.

Later on around 11 or so I was getting ready to leave. I had said most of my goodbyes and as I was heading to the door a couple of my friends S & K were sittin on the stairs chatting. I ended up sitting and talking with them for a bit and was sitting sideways on the step. When all of a sudden I got a sudden sharp pain in my knee, it literally felt like someone smacked my knee with a hammer!! I think I kinda made a sudden gasp noise and then just kinda stopped and then started crying almost immediately. It was so bad!! My friends noticed and didn't know what was wrong. The pain basically ended as quick as it came and I was sitting there and it just felt odd. I was afriad to move or to get up because I didn't want to trigger another pain. I was able to kinda explain what had happened to S and K after the initial shock wore off. Around that time one of the guys R from my ward came over and S said "she might need a blessing" I said I felt I was ok but I just wanted to wait to get up. I did turn around though so I was facing the other way on the step to have more knee support. More than anything else after the shock was gone was I was scared. I had never had a pain like that before and I didn't know why it was happening than! Than another friend K walked over. I think he could tell something was not right and was kinda looking at me a little odd. I told him to stop looking at me like that as I was wiping away some final tears. Several minutes later I decided it was time to go home. I planned to ice my knee when I got there and S said she would walk me out to my car. She took my bag of wet clothes so I wasn't carrying it and as I was slowly walking down the steps in front of the house towards my car it was hurting a little bit. We got to my car and I asked S if R and K were the only priesthood holders left. I also knew M was there and I asked if my home teacher B had left (He had) she said "do you want a blessing now?" I said "yeah maybe I should" and she said she would get R and K for me. I said I would come in the house too because I wasn't going to have them do it in the street or in my car. We went inside and she found the guys. Unfortunately though nobody had any oil. So we decided to drive to S& R's house. We caravaned there. K and R gave me a blessing. It was incredible!!! I remember it being incredible and being told what I needed to hear. I also remember during it R telling me to listen to the Dr's orders and obey them. I don't remember much else but that really stuck out to me because I can be pretty stubborn sometimes and I tend to over-do it a bit. After that we turned on a movie, I was pretty tired though and said I was and that I would likely fall asleep. I kinda did. While there and movie watching S gave me a bag of frozen broccoli for an ice pack on my knee. Since than it's kinda a joke between us that whenever we are watching a movie she gives me broccoli!

I already had a scheduled follow up dr appt for the following Mon. I told Dr Davis at that appointment about all that had been happening. I told him I was getting pain still going up/down stairs and how I was still hurting if I walked a lot. I especially told him about my experience on the 4th! He suggested I get the Euflexxa injections. He said that they couldn't do cortisone because it would destroy the graft which was still healing. He said that the Euflexxa would help with inflammation so that may make it feel better and he said it would also actually be good for the graft. I asked him about getting the brace I would be able to wear to be active again and play stuff and he said he wanted me to wait still to get that one. He told me that one thing that would really help my knee would be weight loss. I told him I am trying as best as I can to watch my eating., it's just hard when I cannot exercise much with it. After that appointment knowing I had been through the injections before I looked back on my previous blog post about them. I knew I had some swelling and pain issues when I got them but I couldn't remember the specifics. I started them again this time around last Mon. When I got the injection that day I immediately felt a strong pressure in my knee! It hurt so bad! It was a lot worse than I remember it being back in Sept. I thought I was going to cry, but I stayed strong! The pressure lasted for several hours and then slowly started to dissipate. I was mildly uncomfortable for a day or two and so it wasn't too bad. Than yesterday I went in for shot 2... I told Adam about last week and he said the feeling of pressure is common because of the thickness of the gel and that if the joint is already inflammed it can make it worse when you inject the gel in. So he went for shot 2. It was a strong pressure again but not quite as bad as last week. I left the office limping again. I went to take care of a friends dogs and then to lunch and it was starting to wear off fairly quickly compared to last week. I was actually feeling alright within an hour or so. I was a little uncomfy but mostly not too bad. I thought things were ok. Than in the evening I went to Wally World. I was walking around to get a few things. I wasn't even there that long really because I only looked at stuff on the list and I was getting some small increased moments of pain. It made me shop a little faster and came home. I helped finish dinner and went to FHE. While there I put my leg up on a chair. When I got there because I had been getting a little bit of pain I took a pain pill. I put my leg on a chair and several times during the lesson I was getting iuncreases in pain still. I was kinda trying to breathe through them i guess you could say. When they came I just kinda took a deep breath and clenched my fists a little and waited it out. After the lesson as people were getting close to my leg I was getting nervous. I was afraid someone would touch it and S noticed. I even started to cry a little. I took another pain pill shortly thereafter. A few of us went to the house where S is dog-sitting and were playing games. As we were there S was noticing I was doing my deep breathing again. She was noticing that it was increasing and knew I was in pain. Eventually she kicked me out and made me come home and ice my knee. (well she wasn't here to make sure I did ice or broccoli it) but I did come home and put ice on it. I also took another pain pill because it had been 4 hours from the 1st one. (I can take 1-2pills every 4-6 hours as needed) I usually don't take many pills at all but last night I was SORE!! After about 2 hours with the ice and the 3rd pill I was finally starting to feel better! Thankfully. I think I need to go back and check again what my reactions were last Sept. Because if I recall correctly the 3rd was the worst of them all and if so I am not looking forward to Mon! Anyway at my 2nd injection appt yesterday I took this picture.... it is not for the weak hearted... it is the needle in my knee while Adam was injecting it....