Day 3

My knee feels a whole lot better from yesterday and Friday, even though it still hurts a bunch. I actually got up and out of the house today, to go to church. I've decided to switch to Motrin instead of the vicatin to save my stomach, because it seemed that every time I got up to use the bathroom more grossness came out of my mouth than the other end.

Anyways, back to my knee events. I went to my regular doctors (Dr. Bhrama) Friday, and she sent me to an orthropedic doctor, because she didn't know much about knees. We had some trouble getting an appointment at Saginaw Valley Bone & Joint, but we finally got one for the following Friday. When we got there, I was introduced to Dr. Danielle Duncan. She was very nice and reassuring about everything. They took a huge needle (I'm just assuming this because I looked away... I can't stand needles!!!) to my knee and drained a crapload of fluid from it. I looked at the fluid after they were done and it was really gross, all bloody with like, brownish fluid mixed in. After that, they moved around my knee a bit, examining it to see what could be wrong with it. Toby, Dr. Duncan's assistant, told me that bloody fluid is a sign of a tear or rip in a tendon or ligament in the knee. He also said that after examining my knee, he was concerned about my MCL and ACL, which are two major ligaments in your knee. That just put me down in the dumps right then, because I know of a few people who tore their ACL and needed surgery. That was what I wanted the least.

They scheduled an MRI for me at St. Mary's Hospital in Saginaw the next week. It started at 6:00 AM!!! So I woke up, my dad drove me there and I got all set up in the machine. It was my first MRI, although I have had quite a few catscans. It took about 45 minutes, and I fell asleep. I finally got home around 7:15 and I had to rush to get ready for school at 8. I did take the time to look at my MRI, because they gave it to us on a CD. Neither my dad or I could get anything out of it, it just looked like some milk got spilled all over a black background. I had another appointment with Dr. Duncan the next day, where I would find out what was wrong with my knee.

The next day after school both my parents went with me to see Dr. Duncan. When we were there, we recieved the bad news that I had a torn ACL and meniscus, and I would need surgery. It was really disappointing, they told me how I would miss 6 months of sports and suck like that. I got really emotional, too. I was devastated to hear that I would miss 2 out of 3 of my senior year sports: volleyball and cheerleading. If all goes well, I will be good as new for softball season, which is my main sport.

Toby told me to work on getting my knee straight all the way, and to move it around so I could get as much mobility as I could. I also had to do some straight-leg lifts, to keep my quad muscle up to par. The bigger your muscles are before surgery, the easier your recovery will be. Also, if you cannot straighten your leg all the way before ACL reconstuctive surgery, then you will never be able to straighten it all the way after surgery.

There was a chance that the torn meniscus (or cartialage) was flipped up, which was preventing my knee from straightening all the way. It was either that, or the swelling was just keeping it from getting straight. So I iced it constantly, got the swelling down quite a bit. After a while, I was able to strighten it all the way. It was a very good thing, because if I hadn't been able to I would have needed two surgeries, the first one on my meniscus, and then a good 6 weeks or so after that surgery would come my ACL surgery. That would have set me back a whole month longer I would miss out on sports, so I didn't want to take that chance. I pushed hard to get my leg all the way straight, and it paid off.

One thing that Toby said to me was that I would have to put all my competitiveness that I would usually put into my sports into my knee to get it better quicker. It makes sense, and that thought will help me a lot.

So my surgery was Friday at 9 AM. I got to the hospital at about 7, to get everything ready. I was freaking out like, majorly, so they gave me some calming stuff which made me think everything was hilarious. My softball coach, Mr. Geese, came by the hospital just to send his wishes to me. I was really nervous, but i calmed down after they gave me the drugs. So i finally got put to sleep around 9:15 or so, and I woke up around 12:30 pm, they gave me more drugs so i fell back asleep and woke up again around 2:30 pm. They let me go home after i woke up, which was surprising.

I'll say more later, I'm about to take a nap.