There's A First Time For Everything

           It was the third game of the day, and I was exhausted. But, I saw the midfielder coming towards me and knew what I had to do. He was built like a football player, running with speed and very little agility. I knew that I would have to make a decision between tackling him early, forcing him to dribble, or forcing him to pass to his teammate on the left. Since I only had David Sun, my senior center defense partner, I opted out of the two-versus-two, because they're unfavorable for defenders. I saw how fast the opponent was and knew that if he could get me to make a mistake, just one wrong step, he could dribble past me and score. So, I decided to make the tackle early. I’d done it a million times, and even though it scared me in the moment, I knew that once I came out of the tackle, our team would be advancing the ball into the opposition half and I’d get some rest. I just needed him to take the ball a touch too far. I let him advance a few steps and then, when the time was right, I flew in. 

Typically, when you tackle, you wait for the right moment, go flying in and focus only on getting a foot to the ball, and black out for a split second as the opponent goes flying over you. Then, you get up and hope that you stopped the opposing team from scoring. But when I got up, I felt a sharp pain in my knee. I couldn’t move it, and had to be carried off of the field by my soccer coach and our school’s athletic coordinator. 

I later found out that I suffered from a partially torn PCL, sprained MCL, torn meniscus, pulled hamstring, and fractured bone, and I would be confined to crutches for about two months, meaning I’d miss the rest of my sophomore season. The complexity of the injury meant that even menial tasks, such as walking or running, couldn’t be performed. In fact, I had to learn how to walk and run again in physical therapy, and I still feel occasional pain while running. I also underwent surgery for the first time, which was an interesting experience. The surgery went well, but the part that surprised me the most was gradually waking up from anesthesia and only vaguely remembering going under pre-surgery and opening my eyes post-surgery. 

The procedure was done on a Wednesday, and I took the following four days to recover. After that, I went back to school. Backpacks and other belongings that were strewn across the halls, supposed to be in lockers, became obstacles or targets that I would kick in frustration. The stairs became unfamiliar to me, and instead of getting a leg workout every morning, I waited for the elevator. While walking through messy halls and waiting for the elevator was a huge pain, I was lucky enough to have good friends who’d take my backpack and wait for the elevator with me. 

I also started physical therapy. At first, I worked on mobility and improving the range of motion of my knee. It essentially only consisted of bending my leg as much as I could and then straightening it as much as I could. This was by far the most infuriating process, because it felt like such a simple task was hardly being completed and no progress was being made. Not to mention, although I did the exercises I was supposed to do, I still feel like I don’t quite have my full range of motion back. I went on to do light quad and hamstring exercises to prepare me for walking. I’d never thought of the intricacies of walking and running, so that part of the recovery process was by far the most interesting. For example, I’d never thought about the range of motion that our legs go through when we walk, and I’d never really thought about how second-nature controlling our impact is when we run. Eventually, I’d gone through piston squats, running, two-foot jumping, one foot jumping, skater jumps, and one-foot jumping with a 180 degree turn.

Even now, almost two years after the injury, I still occasionally feel pain or uncertainty when using my knee. Maybe it’s because I didn’t do my exercise as much as I should have or with as good form as I should have, but it doesn’t really matter. I’ve put in a lot of work and gained confidence in using my leg, and now I can do almost everything that I was able to do before.

Pictures below GRAPHIC ********************************************** (stitches, post-surgery cut, bruising - injury was internal)

1. bruising on my leg a few days after the injury

2. swollen right knee

3. stitches a day after surgery (incision visible)