Back in late July I somehow managed to stretch the ligaments in my right knee. After I had finished washing dishes, with our 17mo son in my left arm, I turned right – but my knee did not. The ligaments pulled the knee plate over and stretched everything around it so fast.
Because I had the kid in my left arm, and I realised I couldn’t stop my body from falling to the floor, I knew I had to protect him – so I tried to turn back to the left. The knee plate was pulled from the right side of my leg to the left side. I am not sure who screamed louder, me or my 18mo son.
He immediately got up and walked away, so I implored him to go get mummy. Sarah was in the shed bottling honey.
One hour later an ambulance arrived to assess my situation and take me to hospital. Once at the Flinders Medical Centre, my ambulance was ‘ramped’ behind four ambulances for about 2 hours. Finally I got in, and took another 2 hours for a doctor to become available. Thankfully both the nurses and the prescription-drugs they gave me were wonderful.
Here is my Instagram coverage of my knee-recovery. Between each is a brief explanation of the moment.
This is what it felt like at the moment of knee-collapse.
Hot dang, check out how swollen that leg is!!
Turns out this is a vomit bag. A nurse filled it with ice for my leg. It certainly helped.
One wall of the X-Ray room at the FLinders Medical Centre
I spent a bit of time trying to work out what caused this to happen to me. Intially I was telling people that I had got my knees caught between the door handles of the kitchen sink cupboards – because it was the only option that made sense. But once I got home and tested this theory, it turned out to be physically impossible. So we still don’t know how it happend.
Thankfully I was provided with an amazing velcro leg brace. When I was a boy, this was unheard of!
Here is my leg with a compression bandage just a few days after the accident. I couldn’t walk anywhere, so spent many days lounge-bound. Thankfully my fingers still worked – so spent many days either on my phone organising honey sales or making and uploading tshirts .
Thanks to a new friend, Tim McGrath, CEO of VitalXan, I was able to test a Muscle and Joint Balm that has Mangosteen as its key ingredient. Initially I was skeptical, but it appeared to be working! So I am now an advocate for his product range. Check them all our here .
This knee brace became my best friend for a while. To stop my knee from twisting left and right, this amazing contraption enabled me to walk. Eventually I chose to remove it because I knew I wouldn’t recover quickly if I relied too much on it. Amazingly my physiotherapist didn’t notice nor object when she next saw me. Essentially I was prescribing my own physio exercise and limits!
The swelling was starting to calm down, yet not completely.
I was house-trapped a lot. It took some effort each morning to get out of bed, yet I knew I would have to. I spend many hours with books and my phone on the lounge. Amusingly, I was still able to create tshirts, upload and sell them. Handicapped I was not!
My knee is no longer dislocated, but my muscles are tight. Lots,and lots of physiotherapy to do! For now, repetitive leg movement to relearn walking around. In a few months I will need to resume my #getfitcampaign #gymworkout .
I tested walking with only one crutch. Didn’t fare too well, but I learned I had to do LOTs of exercise to regain full mobility.
This is probably the first time I stopped wearing pygamas or ‘home pants’ all day long. Being able to dress properly without having to cover a leg brace was a great moment in the journey.
Ha, a rare moment where I let my 4.5yo son have fun with my feet. He handed me two shoes and said “One is for your good foot. One is for your sore foot.” He is so smart. No, I didn’t leave the house looking like this!
Some nights have been absolutely freezing here in Adelaide. To combat this, both legs have been wrapped in lounge blankets. This also made walking painful.
This was the last time I used my crutches at home. I started using anything at hand. In this case, a broom.
21st September 2016: I can finally walk. I went for a hydrotherapy session yesterday afternoon where I thoroughly enjoyed being able to walk without the weight of my body atop either leg. Whilst chatting with people twice my age, I walked back and forth across the pool, all the time wondering if I could do it without the crutches. So this morning, when I had to hurry down the hall to look after one of our children – I was crutchless. And I haven’t used one since. Well, other than for those few moments when my knee bent backwards a little too far.
So now I am on the mend. Which means I can return to vlogging . I was quite despondent during the recovery, so didn’t feel like doing anything’ despite the suggestions that I could have video-logged the whole 3 months. Ah well. I ain’t doing this again if I can avoid it, not even to vlog it for your benefit!
Stephentrepreneur.com 
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