shifting gears
So Facebook and its bite-sized entries are leading me back over to the LJ-side of the fence. At least for awhile while I'm interested in noodling/tracking in longer-form details about my ACL injury from a couple days ago and upcoming months of fix/recovery towards getting back to playing derby. And I figure there can't be that many folks still paying attention to my LJ account, so I can hopefully rest assured that posting such uninteresting-to-the-masses entries will just go mostly unnoticed ;).
On Sunday the ACL in my right knee was snapped tidily in half while playing against the Windy City Rollers. Thankfully it wasn't until the last 10 mins of the game - would've been a damn shame to have missed out on more of that game. WCR are fantastic and gracious chics to play, and is no bad thing to have gone out while playing them.
Not sure what about the hit took out my knee, if it was due primarily to a low-block from whoever the WCR blocker was wo cut-across blocked me, or some function of the sticky floor holding my wheels tight while my legs/knees headed the direction of impact. Guess I'll be able to review video footage from Sam-R-Eye at some point, not sure I want to. I don't like seeing vids of other ppl experiencing knee injury, pretty sure I'd prefer to forgo seeing my own knee's demise.
In any case - the ACL snap was immediate and obvious, it's a visceral *snap* you actually seem to "hear" and definitely feel through you entire body. Once you've experienced it the first time (for me - when I was 15 playing C-team high school basketball), you'll never mistake it for anything else if it happens again. And funnily enough it doesn't exactly hurt all that much when it happens - just feels very *wrong*, like your knee folded the wrong way and s/thing that was there before holding things together isn't anymore. And well - that's really what it is, init?
Past couple days have then been par for the course in the ensuing internal swelling. In my case seems not a whole lot of peripheral/associated damage, as externally the swelling isn't bad or even really obvious. I can feel it internally though - like there's cotton in there preventing full extension/flexion. And there's pain at the outer limits of flexion/extension, but otherwise none at all just sitting with my knee in neutral position.
All just like high school's ACL blowout - except now I have the luxury of 1) it being 2010 rather than 1989 when a small-town doc's fashion of treating an ACL tear (not that he knew it even WAS that) was to "stay off of it for a couple weeks, put a neoprene sleeve on it, then you should be good to go", 2) I have fabulous health insurance, and 3) I live in the Twin Cities where such places like Tria Orthopaedic exist - who have their own Women's Sports Program that deals specifically with women's sports injury recovery and prevention.
Tria was recommended to me by Camel Toni, who went through the whole ACL tear/replacement process over this last year at Tria. It's fantastic - from the start they treat you like an athlete who's injured and planning to rehab right back into your sport. Depending on who I've seen for the occasional minor derby injury in the past, I've had to get a little belligerent and bullish to assert that I play a sport, and that my injuries are an occasional part of the sport I play, not s/thing I should tone down my activity level to minimize.
So this morning was xrays and consult with sports doc (John Steubs) to confirm indeed an acl tear. This afternoon will be the MRI to scope other bits of tissue that don't show up on xrays - like cartilage and meniscus, to spec out if just ligament tear or other damage. Thurs morn is another consult with doc Steubs to read the MRI and get on scheduling the surgery.
In the meantime - I've got to totally shift gears and get into another head game of activity. No running or biking, which for cardio leaves me with swimming. So went on downtown to the YW over lunch to get my swim on. A 1000 yrds - not much, and arms only - but better than couch-surfing.
More later.
On Sunday the ACL in my right knee was snapped tidily in half while playing against the Windy City Rollers. Thankfully it wasn't until the last 10 mins of the game - would've been a damn shame to have missed out on more of that game. WCR are fantastic and gracious chics to play, and is no bad thing to have gone out while playing them.
Not sure what about the hit took out my knee, if it was due primarily to a low-block from whoever the WCR blocker was wo cut-across blocked me, or some function of the sticky floor holding my wheels tight while my legs/knees headed the direction of impact. Guess I'll be able to review video footage from Sam-R-Eye at some point, not sure I want to. I don't like seeing vids of other ppl experiencing knee injury, pretty sure I'd prefer to forgo seeing my own knee's demise.
In any case - the ACL snap was immediate and obvious, it's a visceral *snap* you actually seem to "hear" and definitely feel through you entire body. Once you've experienced it the first time (for me - when I was 15 playing C-team high school basketball), you'll never mistake it for anything else if it happens again. And funnily enough it doesn't exactly hurt all that much when it happens - just feels very *wrong*, like your knee folded the wrong way and s/thing that was there before holding things together isn't anymore. And well - that's really what it is, init?
Past couple days have then been par for the course in the ensuing internal swelling. In my case seems not a whole lot of peripheral/associated damage, as externally the swelling isn't bad or even really obvious. I can feel it internally though - like there's cotton in there preventing full extension/flexion. And there's pain at the outer limits of flexion/extension, but otherwise none at all just sitting with my knee in neutral position.
All just like high school's ACL blowout - except now I have the luxury of 1) it being 2010 rather than 1989 when a small-town doc's fashion of treating an ACL tear (not that he knew it even WAS that) was to "stay off of it for a couple weeks, put a neoprene sleeve on it, then you should be good to go", 2) I have fabulous health insurance, and 3) I live in the Twin Cities where such places like Tria Orthopaedic exist - who have their own Women's Sports Program that deals specifically with women's sports injury recovery and prevention.
Tria was recommended to me by Camel Toni, who went through the whole ACL tear/replacement process over this last year at Tria. It's fantastic - from the start they treat you like an athlete who's injured and planning to rehab right back into your sport. Depending on who I've seen for the occasional minor derby injury in the past, I've had to get a little belligerent and bullish to assert that I play a sport, and that my injuries are an occasional part of the sport I play, not s/thing I should tone down my activity level to minimize.
So this morning was xrays and consult with sports doc (John Steubs) to confirm indeed an acl tear. This afternoon will be the MRI to scope other bits of tissue that don't show up on xrays - like cartilage and meniscus, to spec out if just ligament tear or other damage. Thurs morn is another consult with doc Steubs to read the MRI and get on scheduling the surgery.
In the meantime - I've got to totally shift gears and get into another head game of activity. No running or biking, which for cardio leaves me with swimming. So went on downtown to the YW over lunch to get my swim on. A 1000 yrds - not much, and arms only - but better than couch-surfing.
More later.