One Year Ago....

One year ago I embarked on a journey which I would love to forget, but every single day I am reminded of that journey.
It started 2 year ago in January. I went ice skating with my friends everything was going great until I slipped and did something to my knee. I didn't know what happened, all I knew was that I was in pain. Later that night I went to a friends house. As I rounded the top of her staircase, my knee gave in. Thankfully her parents were doctors which helped immensely, but still I didn't know why all of this was happening. My knee never really bothered me anymore until a year later when I had begun to run seriously. Every stride I took, I could feel the pain shoot up my leg. Eventually we went to a doctor, and he diagnosed me with loose kneecaps and said I should try some Physical Therapy (PT). So we tried that out for a month, but my knee pain continued to increase...so we went back to the doctor and he said I needed surgery. That was a big surprise for me because I have never had anything really serious happen to my body.
So on March 22nd 2010 I went to the hospital for my first knee surgery. It wasn't too bad. When I woke up I couldn't feel my knee. When I came home, I just had to sit in bed for 2 solid weeks. People came to visit me, I got yummy food, and life was good. As soon as I started PT I knew why they said it would be so hard. If you don't move a muscle for a week or so it atrifies, or basically dies...I mean not fully die but it gets really weak. So my right leg was atrified which took a long time to build up, but finally after about  2 months doing PT I was back to normal. I could run, I could jump and I could have confidence in my knee.
One day as I was playing tennis at one of my mom's summer camps, I took off to run around the tennis courts and my knee dislocated. I didn't know what to think. The PT guy told me it wouldn't dislocate along with my surgeon, but alas it had. That was a horrible day, I almost blacked out which is still one of the scariest expieriences ever, and I had to leave tennis the first day I came back. We went back to the doctor and he was surprised at the situation and he said to do some more PT so that's what I did for the next months.
My church hold's a yearly summer camp and we were at this awesome place with a cool waterslide and other awesome things. I decided to go n the waterslide with my friends. Bad idea. As I was going down it was great, but as soon as I hit the water I knew my knee had dislocated. The nurse's on campus were amazing and helpful, but I wasn't able to participate in any of the games, and I had to be driven around in a golfcart all the time (but I didn't object to that too much ;) ) It still was pretty horrible. Thankfully, I rebounded from it realtively fast and was able to do things like walking, but now we knew I needed another surgery. We decided to wait until after I went to Scotland on a mission's trip, which was about a month I needed to wait. It Scotland it hurt, but wasn't too bad because I got to wear a super awesome knee brace that changed colors. But then I came home and got the surgery.
This is what my knee looked like after it.
All bloody and bandaged. :) When I was getting my dose of sleepy stuff I actually started singing "Your Love is My Drug" by Ke$ha, which made for a very funny video. I thought this surgery was going to be just like the last one. I would be able to bend my knee immediatley, and pretty soon be off of cruches. But nooo was I wrong. It couldn't bend my knee fully until like 2 months ago. This surgery wasn't easy. And still I feel the repercussions of it. I still haven't been able to gain all my strength back in it, I call that leg "Flabio" and I still have not been able to get back in shape. Sitting on a bed for two weeks getting whatever food you want, its hard not to gain weight. And I am still mad at myself because of the mess I got myself into that still I am in. Here is what my knee looks like today.
The scratch on the right isn't part of it. Still today I can't feel my knee. So when I sit at a table and my knee is touching it, I can't feel it. That makes for a problem when I get up, because I ram my knee into the table, right now I have a great many of bruises for doing that. But one day my knee will be ok, because "there will be a day with no more tears, no more pain and no more fears and then I will see Jesus face-to-face."
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2 comments:

  1. :) awww i love you!! i haven't had surgery, but PT is definently evil, no?
    <3 we'll just give you a beeper that beeps when you are about to hit your leg on the table ;)
    and it'll have glow tape. :D

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  2. Aww i love you too :) PT is the evilest thing ever. But my PT people were nice though :P Haha I need that beeper so bad, I do it alll the time :P

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