Surgery

Hearing the words, "you're gonna need surgery" are not exactly what you want to hear.

About a year ago, I injured my knee. I actually remember it pretty clearly. I was playing basketball at our town's rec center with a few of my friends. The game hadn't gone on more than a few minutes when it happened. I drove past my guy and pulled up for a short jumper at about the free throw line, it hit off the back of the rim and came back towards me. I then soared up to grab the rebound and when I landed on the floor my knee bent sideways and I heard a "pop". I immediately hit the floor and screamed in pain! This was the most pain I've ever been in. It was horrible! Nothing like giving birth I'm told, but it was pretty intense. After being helped off the court and not being able to put any pressure on my right leg I just went home and iced it all night long. The next day, it was still swollen and hurt a lot! We went to the doctor and they examined me and I had an MRI taken. At this point it was just time to wait to see if I tore any ligaments. And of course when we got the phone call, they told us that I had torn my ACL and partially torn my meniscus. And that meant surgery! This was horrifying news for me considering my last season of soccer was just starting and that meant I couldn't play and not to mention but it was getting close to the end of my high school career and I didn't want to spend my last months on crutches. So we decided to schedule the surgery for after my graduation ceremony. I went the next few months without playing any sports at all and that absolutely killed me! The only thing I could do was walk. So after graduation I had my surgery. I don't remember much from it, but I remember getting my leg shaved and then waking up later in a totally different room than I started in. The surgery was over. I had to have a special machine that iced my leg and put pressure on it. I was also on crutches for just 3-4 weeks because I recovered pretty fast. I went most of the summer going to therapy 2 times a week and really built my flexibility and strength back. After the summer was over and I went back to school, I was almost all the way recovered. To this day my knee feels fine. I do wear a brace just to be careful but that's just my decision because I don't want to experience that kind of pain again! I don't quite have the strength in my leg to where it was before but it's getting there!

"Surgery" is not what you want to hear when you get an injury. I've experience the pain among other emotions of suffering from an injury that required surgery. I'm glad it's all over with and I just pray that it never has to happen again!