Ken's Knee

OK, this is really weird.

On Sunday morning (the day before yesterday), Ken woke up complaining of pain in his right knee. This isn't something that alarmed us because the marines ruined his knees and they frequently hurt, especially with weird weather like we've been having. But as Sunday progressed, it became increasingly difficult for Ken to walk! THAT is not normal. I ran to HEB to get some bengay, a few cold compresses, and an ace bandage. The area just below his knee on the front of his right leg was swollen. I had him wrap the area and keep his knee elevated even while sleeping that night.

Yesterday morning, however, the pain had spread to his right hip and he had a fever. This screamed "infection" to me, even though he doesn't have any scrapes, bites, or any other external wounds that could get infected. At this point, he couldn't walk without my help so I took him to the doctor as soon as he would see us. By the time we were in the examining room at 11am, we noticed the swollen area was now red and warm to the touch. The doctor traced it with a pen so that we could see how it changes. He said the hip pain was a lymph node, further indicating an infection. He then numbed a small area just below Ken's kneecap (can't remember what he called the area - some kind of sack) with an ice cube. This was torturous for poor Ken. :( Once that spot was numb, the doctor inserted a needle that injected some sort of numbing medicine. After the area was thoroughly numb, he inserted another needle to extract some of the infection.... but nothing came out! He'd pull on the syringe and it would go right back in, like a vacuum. He moved it around and tried several times with the same result. As he pulled the needle back out, there was a little drop of something clear on the tip of the needle. He swabbed that for a culture, but said it may have just been a drop of the numbing medicine. He said he was afraid it might be some sort of staph infection but that we'd have to wait for the culture results in a couple of days. In the meantime, he gave Ken a shot of some antibiotic (a hefty full gram dose in the bum), a prescription for another antibiotic (dicloxacill), a prescription for a pain killer (lortab), and said he wanted to see him again the next day. Ken spent the rest of the day in pain on the couch, but the pain killers gave him some relief in time to get some sleep last night.

This morning, we reported to the doctor's office at 11am again. The red, warm area had spread beyond the doctor's previously drawn line and Ken's still having difficulty walking. His fever is also still present. The doctor was visibly discouraged - he had hoped to see improvement. He drew a new, dashed line around the red area and prescribed a third antibiotic (bactrim ds) to take along with the dicloxacill. This time, the doctor mentioned Bursitis but I googled it and it doesn't really seem to fit because it's more about the bones, whereas Ken's pain is in the muscle/tissue below the knee. If it's not improving by the end of the week, he wants to refer us to an orthopedic surgeon who CUT it out. :(

Here's a comparison of Ken's legs. It's hard to see the red in these pictures but you can see the solid line that the doctor drew yesterday, and the dashed one he drew today.

Close-up of Ken's right leg.

Profile shots of his left leg and then right leg, showing the swelling on the front of his leg.

Thanks to the pain killers, Ken is now in good spirits and bored out of his mind. He's pretty bummed about missing work, too - he had been saving his sick days for our daughter's birth.

Say a prayer for Ken, that this infection will clear up immediately and without further drama.