Knee Reconstruction

This is the EDITED VERSION. The original picture did look very much like my leg, but my kids told me it was gross. So here’s the uncool realistic look of what life is like for a few days.

It happened… after years of beseeching the God of heaven in prayer… one of my knees finally gave out.

OK I am praying right now asking forgiveness for the lie I just told. There was no praying involved at all. Just a 200 pound freshman football player. Sorry for the theological diversion, but I couldn’t pass on recording this personal milestone…

One of the hazards of working with people 20 years younger than you is playing with them and forgetting that fact. Thankfully my ego was able to escape only slightly bruised. There are many more embarrassing ways to be injured. I distinctly remember one of my profs showing up for class one day and having to tell all of us that he smacked into the door jam unprovoked.

We were playing Capture the Flag back in November. It was cold – as you might expect in Michigan – and the night was almost finished. We had played several games already and this was to be the last one. The team I was playing on was sure that we knew where the flag was, but we were outnumbered and the other team was aware that we thought we had the right location. We came up with a plan still not knowing exactly where the flag was tied, but our earlier reconnaissance team said it was on the boat that was “docked” behind the storage shed. As we approached the boat different ones of my teammates were being tagged and we were all simultaneously looking for the flag. I saw it tied to the mast and immediately began trying to untie the multitudinous knots. As I finished the last knot, with the flag free and in my hand, I was hit from my blindside and had my knee driven backwards. Ouch! Of course I must mention that as I was hit I threw the flag to my fastest teammate who then ran it across the line and we did win the last game.

I won’t lead you through the next few minutes of boring details except to say that I was in pain and knew something was severely wrong.

I babied it for several weeks after that and eventually (just before Christmas) scheduled an appointment with a specialist. He looked at it and scheduled an MRI for January 5. The results were not conclusive, but he was pretty sure I had torn my ACL. He recommended some therapy to see if it would begin to heal on its own. In that six week time period I was sick for part of 2 different weeks, out of town and dealing with several ministry crises that required my full attention. I did not do the therapy.

I went back for my follow up this Wednesday. Scheduled surgery for March 30 and said that I would love to be considered earlier if there were any cancellations. I received a phone call Wednesday afternoon asking if I could do it the next day. I said yes. Now I’m done. In recovery Dr. Edwards noted that I had completely severed my ACL (or ACLU as my wife likes to call it). So apparently surgery was the right option. I have already started rehab and hope to be ready for softball season. We’ll see.