Today I had my follow-up appointment with Dr. Stull. With a couple of "processing" days under my belt I was ready to talk recovery and repair. The doc walks in and knows he has to tell me some bad news but I beat him to the punch - I already know.
He sat down after looking at the MRI's and we talked. Diagnosis: ruptured ACL, Grade 2 MCL sprain, possible meniscus tear, bone bruising. Although for the life of me, I have no idea how I got the bone bruising??? The knee didn't hit the ground. I think. After that god-awful noise, I really don't remember much about the fall. First thing he says is no surgery. For now. He does not operate acutely - we need to wait for the swelling to go down and for me to get some movement back (although I guess there is some doc in Vail that does do this all the time - the debate is about post surgical stiffness in the knee - my non-medical understanding). But in 3 weeks, depending on how I'm recovering, decisions will need to be made.
In 3 weeks, if I have stability in my knee the question will be if I have the surgery or not. Apparently there are lots of folks out there with no ACL. Who knew? And if you think about the sport of triathlon, it's pretty straight forward. Not a whole lot of side to side movement going on. I could pick up training and be "good to go" (maybe). But there is a lifestyle question as well (especially since I'm middle aged - dear god when did that happen)…..which for me is do I want to ski again? Do I want to ski with my kiddos? And the answer to that is YES. My girls are so disappointed that we won't be skiing together again this season! I don't want to miss out on this time on the slopes together! And I need an ACL to do that. But if I delay surgery to repair in order to concentrate on Kona, it will basically mean missing 2 ski seasons.
So how important is Kona?
However, in 3 weeks if there isn't enough stability, there isn't really a decision to be made other than how quickly I can get under the knife. And then the question will be how quickly I can recover. But remember that recovery involves lots of bike riding…..and swimming……we all know I've suffered through many Ironman runs…..
Now I basically do PT to get ready for surgery. Or not. I start on Monday. And yes, I'm going to treat this like training. Maybe I should record all my sessions and rehab in Training Peaks?
On another note, thank you for all the comments, emails, Facebook messages!! I appreciate all of them……and it's time to move forward and be positive. I've done my wallowing in self pity. I've cried my tears. And sure, I'll do it again. I try to be a positive person. I want to look at things as half-full. I want to see the good in all situations. Now I have to apply this to me and my knee.
Best comment on the last post was from Punky. "Worst. Naked. Photo. Ever."
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