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It's complicated

Have you ever yearned to have a simple saga to share? A straightforward story? A black and white blurt out?

Me too, but it seldom happens.

Why?

I don't know. Maybe because as we get older there is less black and white and much more gray. Or because sometimes life throws ridiculously complex scenarios at us and expects us to figure them the hell out.

Take, for example, my daughter's knee. If you've been reading this blog for very long you're fully aware of how that whole thing went down. And the emotions, physical effort, pain, love, dedication and genuine human fortitude that went into bringing that girl back. And I'm not even talking about what SHE had to do! That was just her support group.

Anyway, it's always been difficult. The whole blown then replaced ACL thing can be tricky, particularly when you're a college athlete and place unbelievable amounts of stress on that joint on a daily basis as part of your sport. And when your body builds scar tissue like crazy that requires another 'cleanup,' aka, surgery, a year later.

So fast forward 2 years and 10 months since her last surgery. To now. Well, not now, two weeks ago now. Daughter, who returned to RI to work out like a demon and be in the best shape she could possibly be in for the season? Blew the doors off of the fitness test! Totally. We are incredibly proud of this!

Two days later, though, she tweaked her knee. Yes, the bionic (not really but kinda) one. 'Tweak' in this case really means 'rejacked it'..kinda. Not terrible, but revealing, this injury was.

Results of the MRI? A dime sized piece of cartilage has broken off and is floating in her knee. Which is what caused the pain/swelling in the first place. Also, and there is always a goddamned also, it seems, the ACL is a little lax. As in not as tight as they'd like to see/feel. As in not supporting the knee as well as they'd like, hence the mobility that allowed the knee to move in a strange way and for the cartilage to get chipped off in the first place.

The RI surgeon is cool. He talked with me for a long time last week and we align in terms of having Daughter's best interests at heart, and wanting to avoid a catastrophic reinjury. Most 20 year olds can't conceive of ever reaching 30, let alone finding themselves 45+ and needing to get out of bed every day to the aches and pains that tend to accumulate over an active lifetime...ie arthritis, which is a given now that there is cartilage damage to the knee, it seems.

This inability to envision a life after 30 is why parents and docs who have a much longer view need to be part of the assessment and treatment plan in my very biased opinion.

Surgeon thinks Daughter should reahab as tolerated, which she's doing. He thinks she should wear a brace, ala Tom Brady's brace, to help stabilize the knee but which can't out and out prevent another injury, particularly given the inherent instability...The goal is get the swelling completely gone, the pain gone, and her used to the brace. By sometime in September.

And then see what happens. (This is the part that gives me shivers, but it is what it is..)

At the end of the season, assuming nothing happens between now and then, he wants another MRI. To see what's happened in the knee since the beginning of the season.

Possible outcomes to this approach:

1. Knee is fine. Brace did its job and Daughter is set to train for another year and play soccer her Senior year of college.

2. Knee isn't really fine, and at least cartilage surgery (with microfractures in the surrounding bones to encourage blood flow and cartilage regrowth), which equates to a 4-6 month rehab.

3. Knee is really not fine at all, and in fact requires the cartilage repair PLUS another ACL reconstruction. Which will be a full year recovery and blow her chances of playing her Senior year.

I'm sure there are some other outcomes, but Positive Mom doesn't even want to go to the place where she gets a big injury during the season and we bring her home for surgery. Positive Mom also doesn't really even want to think about #3, but being Denial Mom isn't really a good idea either, so that's why I went ahead and put 3 in there...

Sometimes it really is complicated. And it sucks. And we just have to keep a long view, be positive, and send Daughter little care packages of things like her favorite Origins mascara and Victoria's Secret panties.

Because when a girl/situation is as complicated as our Daughter and this situation is turning out to be? Nice eyelashes and cute undies can go a verry long way!

Big Hugs,
Stevie

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