Monday, August 15, 2005

How did I do that?

I tend to be accident prone. The latest delimma includes a torn medial miniscus and a blown ACL in my right knee. How did I do that? Hmmmm, as always, with my kids from church. I was guiding a joint 7th and 12th grade white water rafting trip down the mighty Natahala River in the NC Mountains. I've guided before, a number of times. The main rapid of the river is the last one, a technical series of turns ending with a straight trip down the falls. No problem. Well, I didn't make the last turn. We hit a rock, 2 kids fell out. I tried to quickly pull one in but not the right way. I was leaning backwards of the with my right foot lodged between the thwart and bottom of the raft. I turned sideways and pulled as hard as I could. I got twisted and the weight of me, the student and the rushing water was too much for my knee stretched across the back of the boat. I heard and felt the "POP." It would have been the equivalent of someone clipping me on the inside of my knee. I couldn't pull up any more so I had to let the student go, I had to let go and we both went out of the boat. As I was floating underneath the boat, I gave it a hard push so at least it went straight down the falls. No one else fell out. I took the falls without the boat, missed the throw rope that was 2 feet away, and floated to the first takeout. Wow! I knew something was not right with my knee becasue it felt real wobbly. The Nantahal is a year road 42 - 45 degrees and I think that helped. I ruled out the ACL as a problem, sucked it up, spent the rest of the trip taking it east, Drove the bus back home, then went to the Urgent care center when I got home. Urgent care, there's a joke. I was pretty swollen. They took an Xray and made me wait an hour to tell me it was probably sprained. "Wrap it up, take some vicoden and if it still hurts in 2 weeks, come back." NO, It still hurts, something POPPED! That's not a sprain and I ain't waiting 2 weeks to find out something else is wrong. I asked the DR what the xray showed. She said it showed some swelling. DUH. I didnt need an xray to see it was swollen. I made an orthopedic appt for the next day. Waited a week for the MRI and another 3 days for the results. I'm sitting in Dr. Presnal's office and he pulles out the mri. Shows me the cartilage and says he can fix it. I'm thinking 2 weeks and back to normal. He then tells me about the ACL and refers me to another dr. Within the hour, my mission trip to Bangledesh and my whole ski weason is gone. OUCH. Surgery next week, 2-3 weeks on crutches, 6 months before I can do any sports. Sucks to be me, but I'll deal with it.

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