Another Dislocated Knee

Some of you may remember about 3 1/2 years ago, one of my twins dislocated her knee on Good Friday. That was a long process of healing and physical therapy.

This past Wednesday we sadly had a repeat incident, this time with her twin sister!

I had been in the middle of making supper (homemade burgers on the grill!) I went upstairs to our bathroom, Kevin and most of the kids were playing a game at the kitchen table and Sarah was all the way downstairs in her bathroom (we have 3 levels in our house).

I heard Kevin yell down to Sarah to ask what she was watching and to turn it down (though it turns out she wasn't watching anything but screaming out). Then I didn't hear any noise from the kitchen. Next thing I know 2 of the kids came up stairs screaming at me to get downstairs that something was wrong with Sarah. I went flying downstairs, tripping as I went as by now I could here the blood curdling screams and had no clue what was going on.





I found her on the floor in an odd position, clutching her leg. I could tell right away she dislocated it. She had no clue how it had happened. She said she was taking out her contacts and went to reach for something and next thing she knew she found herself on the ground.

If it had been an elbow dislocation, I could've splinted it myself and taken her to the ER but with it being her knee, the fact that she was in an odd position on our lower level and that she is as tall as I am, I knew we needed the ambulance to transport her. Not to mention, it would've been hard for her to ride in a regular vehicle with her leg all twisted.

So I placed the 911 call around 5:55pm while changing out of my PJ's (because let's face it, this pregnant momma is way more comfy in pj's around the house). I told the dispatcher that I am an EMT and specifics to pass along to the crew.

Meanwhile I had Susan go turn off all my food I had cooking so it wouldn't burn and that they could just reheat after we left. Poor Ava & Olivia by now were crying and scared for Sarah.

When Susan had dislocated her knee, she had a great ambulance crew who knew exactly what to do. Sadly, I was less than impressed with the crew chief taking care of Sarah (the driver was compassionate and did what she could but the guy overrode her). He didn't follow protocol even when I reminded him what he should be doing (um, immobilizing her leg/knee is standard procedure and he refused to do it!! That's one of the reasons I called them out!) After using a sheet to help lift her, they placed her on the stair chair to go up a half flight of steps to get her outside to the liter.

Anyway, I rode along in the ambulance with her. We had wonderful ER staff! Just as she was getting wheeled into her room, the nurse was already saying they would place an IV and give her morphine in hopes it helps with the pain (sadly it didn't touch it but it was nice they tried as they never offered pain relief to Susan.)

We had a very compassionate Dr who said he was going to put her to sleep to fix her knee. That was her biggest fear. The Dr that fixed Susan's knee would not put her to sleep and popped her knee back in place while she was awake and it was awful! So once Sarah knew she wouldn't be going through what Susan did, she was able to relax a little. She had some x-rays done to see if there was other damage to her knee before they fixed it.

The left photo is what her knee looked like before the Dr put it back in place. The photo on the right is what her "normal" knee looks like (the one not dislocated).

Around 8pm, she was given Versed and shortly after, Ketamine and within 5 minutes she was out and the Dr gently manipulated her knee back in place. They then placed her leg in an immobilizer. After about 10 minutes, she slowly started to awake.

Around 9:30, they talked about discharging her so I told Kevin he could make his way in to pick us up. He said all the kids were still awake and waiting for Sarah. He had tried to get the littles down for bed before he left, but they seemed to want to see that Sarah was ok before they would go to sleep. In fact, Ava insisted on riding along to come pick up Sarah so he came to the ER with her in her pj's!

Ava wanted to cuddle up with Sarah to make sure she was ok!

They ended up wanting to get more x-rays so we were delayed in getting discharged until 11pm. Everyone was still awake when we got home. Olivia had even made a card for Sarah, so sweet!

Since she and I hadn't eaten supper, I made us some soup while everyone got ready for bed.

Sarah is to stay off her feet until we see the specialist on Monday. She has to wear her brace 24/7 and use crutches to get around. Susan had had twice a week physical therapy for 5 months so I am hoping & praying we aren't facing the same thing this time around. With a new baby soon coming, this could definitely be a challenge!

Please keep her in prayer for healing and patience. She is not one to lay around and obviously having to rest, it gets quite boring at times for her. Everyone has been doing great in helping her out and picking up her chores!

Sarah gave me permission to share her experience as well as these photos! :)