All the Great Ones

Tiger Woods, Mariano Rivera, Ricky Rubio, and many, many more, probably the least of whom is ...you guessed it: I am the latest to succumb to the debilitation known as a anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear. I would love to say that I was conquering Everest or running 30 marathons in 30 days or lifting a bus off of a stricken victim, but such is not the case. In fact, I would be hard pressed to pinpoint exactly WHEN the injury occurred. On New Year's Day while exiting Lambeau, I felt a pop in my knee and figured it was much the same as I'd experienced before...put a restrictive sleeve on it for a couple of days, and it would go away. That couldn't be the cause...Three months later, there was still some residual soreness, but I'd resumed exercising every day with no real effects other than soreness after sitting for a while...something that I would consider "normal" since recovery is getting slower all the time. Considering that I had previously visited an orthopedist who had worked with noted Dr. James Andrews, I figured he could help. An X-ray showed several large calcium deposits filling the area behind my knee: the largest such deposit the ortho had ever seen! (I always work to be the best!) While there was no immediate reason to remove them, it was a matter of quality of life as I moved forward, and Dr. Obma left it up to me but suggested I get an MRI done just to make certain there would be no complicating issues once he sliced my leg open. Shortening the story somewhat, when the nurse called with the results, her first comment was, "Aren't you having knee pain?" followed by the news that the ACL was completely torn. How about that? Now, I know I can go through the rest of my life with chunks of calcium floating around that will cause occasional pain, and I know I can survive the rest of my life with a torn ACL, but do I want to? What if the unknown injury has been the cause of my inability to run pain free? If that were true, and I could race again...my life would start over. However, that's probably too much to hope for...I'll just have to wait until my appointment this week to get the expert opinion. Falling apart is not pleasant.