For the past week or so, my knee has been a bit suicidal. I can tell this because the dang thing keeps getting hurt: first, when I tripped on our deck after what we’ll kindly describe as “one too many” cocktails. Again when I slid on our wet yard while trying to navigate downhill. The third time when the thing gave out from underneath me as I walked down the stairs. Then the clincher: Monday night when my husband opened a door that hit me in the backside and sent me sprawling… right onto my knee.
In other words, I’ve been in various stages of pain for days now. Self-medicating didn’t work since, as I pondered while sliding down the yard, it’s not such a smart thing to have a couple of cocktails to dull pain that had been caused by too many cocktails in the first place. Ice didn’t work. Even staying off of it didn’t work. So yesterday I broke down and went to the doctor because she, after all, has the good stuff.
The verdict: I’ve fractured my knee cap. We’re not sure which fall did it, but there’s no doubt that the thing’s fractured.
The prescription: some niiiiiiice pain killers, a directive to keep the thing elevated and iced, and a cane. Or crutches. My call.
Yesterday I gave the crutches a try. My husband, being the penny pincher that he is, suggested we just borrow some crutches from a friend of his. While that sounded like a good idea at the time, the fact is the man’s considerably taller than I am… and so are his crutches. So, in addition to having an aching knee, I also now have very sore armpits.
Today I opted for the cane and, while it works rather nicely if I need to change channels on the TV without a remote or tap my cat’s behind to keep myself amused, it does not help much when it comes to keeping weight off of my foot (and hence keeping my knee from hurting).
But that’s fine. Really it is. Because, as I mentioned, when it comes to pain relief my doctor has the gooooood stuff. And now, so do I!
While laying here on the floor of my office pondering the pain-relieving beauty that is Tylenol with Codeine, I couldn’t help noticing that J&J makes the stuff. I hadn’t realized that. Then again, when it comes to pain medications I’m typically in too big a hurry to take them to notice much about their manufacturing.
Anyway.
Did you know that in addition to making a variety of products we all use (Tylenol, Band-Aids, Baby wash, etc.) J&J is committed to protecting the environment? One area of particular interest is their efforts to minimize paper and packaging. While the company did completely eliminate PVC in its packaging, let’s face it: those regular bottles of Tylenol are STILL heinously over-packaged. Especially when you’re in pain.
Which, by the way, is another reason why I love the prescription stuff.
