You Had 4 Days Rest...

2 minutes to go before Monday officially ends. Aren't we glad that we can finally put Monday behind us?

Well... I woke up to slightly stiff knees this morning and contemplated working from home... again. Sure, I thought about going off to work but the thought of driving through the long journey (even in my automatic car) for about 2hrs (to-and-fro), just about turned me off.

I've been battling my knees (sprained/swollen ligament) knees for nearly a month now. At first, I tried the knee support. It did help but there were good an bad days. With the knee guard, I drove off to work, also elevated my feet (alternate if for a day since I don't have stools or cushions to support) while working. So, for about 1/2 a day, I felt relief on one leg, while the other had some pain. I was supposed to get ice packs, where I'm sitting was too far away from the pantry to put my ice-pack. Hence, I did not do the ice treatment during the day.

I thought about taking LRT but recalled that I still have to do a lot of walking, worse still, I probably have to stand all the way along the whole 45-minute journey to/from work.

So, after about 1.5 weeks, I went to the physiotherapist to get some relief. I endured the pain for the rest of the working week until Saturday when I had my time off to go see her. After the session, I got some relief but I still could not walk down the stairs without wincing in pain. It was then that I found out that my knee ligaments were swollen as the physio felt some lumps at the inside-facing part of my knees. *Sigh*

The good thing was that my physio taught me some good knee exercises and I did it religiously. So much so that I hope that my knee and thighs are getting a workout despite me not going to the gym for a while.

This was when I did the mistake.

I went back and decided to apply heat therapy and there were times it worked, there were times it didn't. Whenever it did work, I felt relief from pain and also my knees were not stiff. For the last 2 weeks, I was still driving to work. I tried to avoid as much walking as possible but when you're at the office, you have no choice. You can't just ask your colleague to go get water and stuff for you. They're busy with work. Anyway, I should take care of myself.

Snoopy's "injured" as well..

Nope. I wasn't looking for any pity. I walked as much as I could, even when it was painful, I still kept cheerful.

So, right up until last Thursday, I went to work. I walked slower than any other person's grandma, drove slower than the 10-tonne lorry because my knee was in pain, and suffered the itchy side effects of having eczema because I was wearing the tubi-grip full-time. I decided to just work from home.

I was in pain. No painkillers for me. Don't want to rely on medicines too much.

I discussed insurance options with HR and found out that I still had to go back to the panel doctor for a recommendation letter. I hate panel doctors, especially the one nearby as the doctor didn't seem to care about the patients, only about how much he can earn from them. He drives a fxxking gold-coloured, 2-seater, Mercedes SLK. Go figure.

Anyway, I was rushing some stuff out and had to keep my @ss at home. So, despite the pain. I churned out something which hopefully satisfied the customer.

Finally, while my parents was at the pharmacist asking about something, they told him about my predicament. He prescribed some anti-inflammatory medication and gel for my leg. It worked.

Woo hoo... By Saturday, I could walk almost normally. Went out for a bit of lunch but dare not drive. Felt bad asking my Mom to drive me around when it should be the other way around. After that little outing, I was grounded for the rest of the weekend, just to rest my legs/knees.

Come Monday, I didn't want to risk going through the cycle of rest/stress on my knees again. I informed my team lead that I would like to work from home. He said that if it still hurts, I should go and see the doctor. He said something to the effect of "no", that the company frowns on the policy of working from home. He said that besides I had 4 days of rest.

WTF....

I went off to do some stuff and came back to tell him that I would be taking EL (Emergency Leave).

He said that he would let it slide this time.

*Sigh*

I stood my ground. If he had wanted to let it slide, he should have suggested it before I put up the suggestion of taking EL. I told him, it's ok, I'll just take the EL and went offline. I was supposed to be "resting".

Out of this whole entire thing, I've learned a few things:

1. I have small knees - hence the reason why I'm at the gym, working my @ss off despite a tiring day so that I lose weight.
2. Heat therapy worsens sprains. One should use cold packs always - apply for 15-20 minutes every 2-3hrs.
3. You know how well your company treats you when you get sick.
4. You know how well your boss feels about the team when you get sick.
5. You learn about your bosses' "principles" when you have problems such as these, i.e. do you have a boss who will fight for you or would rather advise you to not cause any trouble?
6. You learn how it feels like to be a person who is suffering leg problems or don't have legs at all.
7. If you have to wear a tubi-grip and you're an eczema sufferer, be prepared to tackle the eczema problem as well.
8. Never say, "At least you can get well over the weekend" when someone falls sick over the weekend. It doesn't sound cool, because nobody likes to get sick over the weekend and besides, aren't we allowed to utilize our sick leave days?

This post is really long... But its the entire story about my knees. Thanks for reading it, if you got this far. (^ ^)

It's almost time for me to get to bed as I have to get to work tomorrow. Wish me luck.