Knee Injury Woes
At the end of September, I injured my knee during a jiu jitsu test. I’m familiar with this type of injury, having repeatedly hurt my left knee in the past playing basketball and soccer. But this time it was my right knee, so Irene and I agreed that it’s finally time to do something about the problem. I’ve been compensating for instability in my left knee with my right for years now, and that’s not an option anymore.
When I first hobbled into my orthopedist’s office, I told him my story and convinced him that we should scan both of my knees to evaluate the whole situation. I would have to wait a few weeks to get the MRI, but I was getting better every day, so we were all optimistic that it was just a bad MCL sprain.
On Thursday, I went in for the scans. The next day, I heard the results from my primary care physician: I had torn both my MCL and ACL. It was worse than I thought, and I’ll probably need surgery. Plus, my left knee showed signs of old damage to the ACL and meniscus. So now I’m going to meet with my orthopedist to discuss my options for surgery and a plan for the long road to recovery. I wish I had appreciated my knees more when they were healthy. Now I know how Tom Brady must have felt back in 2008.
