RACE SEASON

It is officially race season and last Thursday I signed up for a big one. It's a different kind of race, though. It's not the kind where you get a medal at the end of 26.2 miles. It's a similar training process, including a lot of hard work, determination, sweat and maybe even occasional tears. It is a marathon of rehab and pardon the pun, but I'm a knee deep in it.

This is a MRI that shows a torn ACL. The ACL should be a thick black band (appearing as dark as the PCL) that connects the femur and tibia. Unfortunately, my ACL looks just like the one in the picture. I have a complete tear in the R knee. Oops. 

I tore my ACL playing basketball last Thursday night. I knew right away that it was gone. In all my years of playing basketball, I never really had a knee injury but as soon as it happened, I knew. It's a terrible feeling of instability. Almost as if my lower leg became disconnected to the upper leg and I couldn't operate them together. Uh, man. It was terrible. So, my marathon of rehab is underway. 

I've been doing physical therapy every day to prepare for the surgery. They say the stronger you are before the surgery, the better you'll be after. The shenanigans happened last Thursday and by Sunday, I was off the crutches and out of my brace. On Wednesday, I biked on a stationary bike and yesterday I went a whole mile! I know it seems silly. I burned a total of 30 calories on the bike and it feels almost ridiculous. But just as the first few runs training for a full race seem insignificant, by the end, they are the stepping stones for getting up to 10, 15 and eventually 26 miles. Every step in this journey is an important part and I'm learning in my marathon of rehab, I can't skip any of them. 

My surgery is on Wednesday and the Lord has put me in great hands. The Vikings team surgeon (Dr. Boyd) is doing my repair and he has done a million of these things. I have a tremendous amount of confidence in him and he has put me at ease through all of this. I am getting an allograft repair, which means I am receiving an ACL from a donor. One has to be 30 years of age or younger at the time of death for their ACL to be donated. It is a sobering thought. But one that has helped me keep all of this in perspective. I have been so incredibly blessed through all this experience. It's just a knee and it can be fixed. And without trying to sound too dramatic but also really expressing my true appreciation for the opportunity to be healed, I will say that I am genuinely thankful for whoever's ligament is about to reconstruct my knee. I can't imagine the pain his or her family has felt from their loss and I'll never know their story, but I am going to be able to run again because they decided to check that little box on their drivers license application that says Organ Donor. And for that, and all of the other people that have received more important and life-saving organs, I am incredibly grateful. 

This is a marathon that I am approaching one day at a time. So for today and tomorrow, I will continue to work hard to build my strength and I will avoid anymore youtube videos that show ACL repairs. (That was a terrible mistake watching that today. I do NOT recommend it.) 

I am in great hands. Thanks for all the support so far. I feel so deeply blessed.