For those of you close to me, you know that grace and coordination is something I lack. I mean not as severely as my sister but pretty dang close. I’d like to think that it’s genetics, and maybe we just inherited the inability to be skilled at difficult things such as walking without tripping, and running without gangly arms, but both of my parents seem to be averagely coordinated. So maybe Desiree and I just got a bad combination of genes and that’s where we went wrong. In our favor our mom was born on an island and still doesn’t know how to swim, and I’ve seen a barstool buck my dad off so maybe it was inherited.

Facebook memories reminded me today that it’s been 3 years since I tore my meniscus and MCL, which was my second knee injury. In case you were wondering I convinced myself knees weren’t important and avoided surgery for a while after that.

Knee Injury #1

I’ve always been a slightly competitive person, not that I can’t handle losing, it’s just not my favorite. However, my senior year during our homecoming pep rally I was ready to dominate a friendly game of ships and sailors. So ready to dominate that I disregarded the fact that all I wore that day was a football jersey as a dress, and a pair of spanks (not really ideal for diving across gym floors, but heck the volleyball girls do it all the time). We started off the game and I stayed with the majority as everyone started getting out. I proceeded to flash my lower butt cheeks to the whole k-12 gym, but it was irrelevant because my mind was set on winning this game.  We were down to the final 3 players and it was down to me, a football player, and one other person, still bound and determined. The lead yelled hit the deck and I flung my body down the gym floor. Apparently lacking elegance when I did this because it stung, I looked down just in time to see my knee cap slide back into place.  They made one more call on moves we were supposed to do and I stood up as quick as I could luckily the last move only involved me jumping into another players arms, so the football player swept me up, since I couldn’t really jump and we were victorious. Unfortunately my knee wasn’t, I hobbled off the gym floor, and like any logical person would do I threw on my heels and carried on with my day. As the day went on my knee became inflamed, and I was gimping worse. My cross country coach was super impressed with me, as we were only halfway through the season, and apparently she still wanted me to run. After a quick trip to the ortho where I was informed that my knee cap had slid out of place, I decided I was fine and carried on with my life. Besides if I would have given up there I would have never experienced breaking mycross country PR, followed my throwing up breakfast burrito all over someone else’s shoes, and that was worth a whole season of running my tail off with a sore knee.

Knee Injury #2

It was freshman year of college and I was usually doing hood rat things, by hood rat things I mean I actually studied a lot, and if I wasn’t studying I was fishing or outdoors, with the exception of working (I was kind of a lame college student, but whatever). We had just got back from a day of snowboarding at Lost Trails, for those of you who haven’t ever been there I would 100% recommend it. How often do you get to shred in two states in the same day, and as one of the biggest ungroomed mountains it’s just an overall blast. That night I was lounging in my room when it was decided we were playing Just Dance. One of the girls down the hall was stupidly good at this game, and for some reason I thought I could beat her. For those of you who haven’t experienced my dance skills, I definitely don’t get them from the Puerto Rican side of my family. So here we were jamming out to some “Good Girl” on Wii when I stepped wrong and heard a snap. Next thing I know I’m laying on the floor laughing hysterically, intermixed with some eye watering, and laugh sobs. For some reason my emotional responses to pain never actually make sense, but Lord let me tell you I was hurting. I stood up, and got help back to my own dorm and started icing to see if I could ice it back to normal before I had to make a call to my parents. One nights sleep and an overload of advil later I finally was forced to call my parents. Actually I say that I called my parents, but as soon as the phone started ringing I panicked and threw my phone to Devin, I wasn’t about to be the delivery girl for bad news. One doctors visit later they decided I had a torn meniscus and a partially torn MCL, pshh no biggy, so I carried on with my life (after crutching around for 2 weeks). Also I would like to mention that telling your doctor you tore your knee playing Wii isn’t a  proud moment, and him laughing the whole appointment about my WiiKnee was probably the most irritating thing I’ve ever sat through.

Honestly the last time I finished off my knee isn’t all that funny so I’ll spare you the details, just know that my ego was in the way, and I must’ve tripped over it while I was loading chemical into the back of the pickup.

This was the final straw before I decided it was time to get surgery. Every time I moved wrong I was out for two weeks, so it was the only logical decision. Surgery was basically the worst thing I’ve ever gone through, not because the surgery was bad but I’m the worst when it comes to being laid up. Also I’m not a nice girl when I come off of anesthesia, I just get a little aggressive, sarcastic, and impatient. The surgeon finished surgery, with three screws, two tendons, a new meniscus, and a pin in my lower leg to stabilize everything. My predicted 8 weeks on crutches turned into 2 quickly, and I’m sure the doctor was impressed to hear how many street dances and weddings I had been going to.

I would love to tell you that since knee surgery I’ve gotten a lot less clumsy and my coordination has improved drastically but that would be a lie. Literally a week ago I fell getting out of my pickup and was sitting on my hind in the middle of a parking lot. I’m just hoping at some point my grace might not cost me near as much money.

 

Until Next Week,

Julissa