Knee Injury and recovery

In December last year I suffered a serious leg injury involving a near-full rupture of my patellar tendon.

The thing with excessive damage to the Patellar, it shuts down the leg muscles...with Crutches, I could move around, but this drastically limited my ability to help around the house - including helping with our newborn.

Recovery required months of physiotherapy and rehabilitation, much of which I’ve had to fund personally.

I wasn’t able to take meaningful time off during recovery due to ongoing responsibilities and increased pressure at work, and healing had to be managed alongside everyday demands. (try going upstairs with a leg that doesn't work, while holding a young child)

While I had close family support, that was limited, and we had to fund housework assistance personally. The physical and mental toll of continuing without proper rest has been significant.

While there was some government assistance (specialist visits) there was significant costs that were not covered by ACC: doctors visits, travel to specialists, full-time inhouse care, medication, physio, etc.

Some weeks after the injury, severe cellulitis set in, so a course of strong antibiotics was prescribed (after the first prescription resulted in anaphylactic shock)

Recovery attempts also coincided with an unusually demanding challenge professionally, which added to already high stress levels.

All in all, its been a rugged 12 months. Any support is deeply appreciated.