Small possability I might need surgery.

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So on April first I injured my knee at work. All I did was either step and twisted slightly, or just stepped wrong, but it slowly bothered me more and more. Then about two weeks later I tripped over a rug at work and make it way, way worse. After several different doctors appoints and physical therapy appointments, the word "surgery" keeps cropping up. Now, I've had x-rays, which didn't show anything, and I just had an MRI, but I'm waiting for the doctor to look it over and tell me what he thinks. But here it is a month and a half later and my knee isn't all that better. Some days are OK, but other days it's terrible. And now I've got one nasty cough and sore throat, which is causing my body and joints to ache, and making my injured knee throb something fierce.

Since I haven't been able to work for a while, I'm sick, and I'm more injured than I've ever been before, I'm about to lose it. Go into a breakdown, this is way more than I can normally handle and I've only been able to get through it by mindlessly playing video games and popping sleeping pills at night. I want to know how I should handle the news, if I need it, of surgery. My first impression is to curl up and rock back and forth, except curling up would hurt my knee. Plus, sitting in a hospital bed, with people talking about, sounds of florescent lights, echoing hallways... I can't even think about it or I start to breakdown.

I wonder if I could get enough pillows and blankets to make a fort...

These days a knee surgery is common enough that they don't want to take up hospital space and would rather conduct in an outpatient setting. They send you home with a bottle of Vicodin and call it good. If you do get stuck at a hospital you can let them know the pain level is at about 12. or like in another thread, about 100mg of over-the-counter Benadryl will help you get your 'earplugs' on.

All in all I like that fort idea

Hello,
My adult son has Aspergers and I also work for an Orthopedic Surgeon, in fact I am his surgical coordinator. I hope to provide you with the advanced information you need that will lesson your anxiety and help you move forward.
1. If you are ever in a hospital setting, please request or call ahead and ask for a patient advocate to meet you at the department you are going to. Explain to the advocate that sounds, lights and crowds prevent you from absorbing a lot of information and it would help to have a second set of ears listening to the information so that when you review everything you will be fully informed. In addition the advocate may provide questions that you may not have considered.
2. If the MRI is negative and you need physio or physical therapy-the standard to 2x a week for 8 weeks. You should know that the earliest physical therapy will yield benefit is 5 weeks.
3. If the MRI is positive and surgery is recommended ask the advocate if you can be taken to the floor where surgery happens just to take a look around. You should also search online for a detailed photo of the knee with all the anatomy identified-I mention this because being familiar with the terms will help you understand the language better and visualize the procedure better.
The knee is basically 3 components, bone, ligaments and cartilage. Every knee is the same and there are going to be no surprises nor will there be anything terribly horrible. Since you can actually walk around, but it's painful, your bones are probably fine. Ligaments and cartilage begin to thin and become aged just as we age, sometimes the get thinner in spots where the are subjected to repetitive actions, like being a runner of golfer. Often our age together with a minor injury can cause either the cartilage or ligaments to tear and this is very painful. A tear is a pretty scary word but it's not the typical type of tear that we associate with a tear in paper for example. Have you ever cut fabric, like jeans? The first day it has a nice clean edge and as days go by the fibers begin to fray apart-those bits of fray are tears and they are very, very small. If your ligament or cartilage has a tear, the little frays have lots of nerves that are alive and well-I know this because you are experiencing pain, coming from those little frays which have "frayed" and are floating about inside the knee, they get pinched by the actions of the knee. A surgeon will go in through a portal about the thickness of a computer wire and he or she will "trim" the frays down until a point where the ligament or cartilage is intact-so they don't float anymore. It will generally take the surgeon 20 minutes, but you might stay in the surgical center a while-we keep patients about 6 hours. Then you go home.
You might be sore the next day but you can walk normally the next day. Don't limp or avoid walking because you think your knee needs "rest", doing that promotes stiffness and makes things worse. Your not sick and neither is your knee, think of it as a haircut and you are going in for a trimming. The actual "trim" size is like the little hairs on a paintbrush, very tiny.
Ask the advocate to be with you, maybe you can have surgery on a Saturday when the hospital is quieter. If you are on anti-anxiety meds ask you doctor for a note to allow you to take your meds on the day of surgery. I encourage my patients to do that because it makes them feel better. They will give you lots of blankets and you will enjoy the heavyness.
Until you meet with the doctor I can tell you that in the 7 years I have been helping people get ready for surgery my boss always tells patients to use ice to help with pain and swelling, never, ever use heat-but a physical therapist might use heat and that's ok for them to do that. Ask your doctor is it's ok to use Advil or Aleve to help with swelling. Tylenol doesn't help with swelling. This is a very common thing, my boss does this type of surgery 300 times a year.
I hope that gives you an idea what to expect. Good Luck to you.