Torn Meniscus

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I suffer from a torn meniscus since I was 22, that was back in 1984, I was playing football and I had a tackle with another guy and I just felt my knee crack, I remember when I stood up and put weight on the leg my knee cap just rotated to the back, that scared me, but luckily it was just for a moment it returned to normal position a few seconds later,I thought it was broken, but what had happened was that I had torn my inner meniscus, I occasionally would have my knee lock and then I would have to stretch my leg until it unlocked, this hurt a lot but it was the only way to fix it.

Well move on to 1988 I was working for a company here in La Ceiba as a loading supervisor on ships, well once I was in a hatch and as I was climbing the ladder my knee just snapped, and there I was with a locked knee, I had to climb about three stories of ladders with that leg just dangling but I made it. Once on shore I had to go to the hospital, I explained what I had to the orthopedist and he just told me he'd straighten it out ASAP.

Well he took me to the emergency room had me lie down and injected me with 100 mgs of DEMEROL a painkiller, and also he injected a sedative. He told me to be still until I fell asleep and he'd be back and fix my knee without my even knowing it, well I have always been kind of resistant to these things, so of course when he came back I was wide awake, and he told me: "What? You're not asleep? Well I can't put any more drugs in you, so I'll just do it with you awake." Well he had me lift my knee and then he just put a lot of pressure on it until I heard it crack, and he just told me that's it it's in place now. Well it hurt even more than when I did that to myself, because at least I would stop if I thought the pain was too great, and also before doing it I would drink some rum or whiskey and that helped with the pain.

But there I was with my leg OK again, and he told me OK, just stay here for a couple of hours because you are drugged you can't go out in the street like that. By this time I didn't like this guy so much, so I just thought screw it, I'm leaving, so I walked out and got on a taxi, of course I fell asleep in that car, lucky thing the driver knew me and took me to the place where I lived, where he shook me until I was more or less awake and that was that.

After this the doctor called me and told me I needed an operation and not to worry because the company would pay for it, I never took that opportunity though, I was scared of one leg getting shorter than the other one and having to walk with a limp. I still have that torn meniscus in there.