I was once able to walk normally, until I took an arrow to the knee.

Actually, I didn’t take an arrow to the knee, but it sure feels like it. And it hurts like a mofo.

It started last week, when my left knee began to get a big twinge in it again. I’d had this pain before last year, I’d gone to the doctors with it and had even been referred for blood tests. After a while of using voltarol gel and strapping a tubigrip on it the pain went away. However, it has come back, more painful than it was last time. My left knee looks about five times bigger than my right one. I can only just bring myself to bend it at times. There’s a limp in my walk. I can’t sleep on my left side (my preferred side) without waking up with a start (the pain keeps me awake enough as it is). Getting up and down stairs seems to take an age. As does getting in and out of the bath.

So the other day I went to the doctor’s, where after close examination they told me I had a cartilage injury. A cartilage injury! Isn’t that the type of injury you can get from playing sports? The kind that puts a footballer out for months?! I don’t even play any sports! What’s worse is that I don’t know for sure how I could have got it. My only theory is that it could go back to when I fell over on my street during the great cold snap of late 2010 and early 2011. Back then I didn’t think I’d landed that hard, especially as it was in the snow, but it’s the only thing I can think of. Something must have happened to make it flare up again after so long.

I have to make another appointment if it doesn’t go down after a week. In the meantime, I’m taking ibuprofen and using the tubigrip and hoping it does the trick, as well as resting it as much as possible.