That First Day

I slept on and off through the night even restarting one of my Netflix movies so that I could promptly fall back asleep. I woke up and it still didn't feel right. I felt the wobble when I gave my right leg a tiny bit of pressure. I knew it was pointless to try to hop into work. I logged in and canceled my meeting and gave a heads up to my coworkers.

I anxiously waited until Bone & Joint was open at 8am so I could call and try to schedule an appointment. Sara and the girls waited to leave in case I needed a ride. I didn't want to wait around to see the doctor. I confirmed my insurance was accepted there and was glad I didn't need a referral. The knee was never in much pain, but obviously there was discomfort. I've been happily accustom to using both of my legs with no limits for the past 36 years. This was new. Never before had I had a serious injury like this. It felt serious.

After being on hold for 10 minutes or so, cause apparently everyone needed to call at 8am, I got through to the scheduler and got setup for a 1:50pm appointment. Sara left for work and to drop the girls off. I took care of some work things and stared back at the dog who expected me to hop all over to let her out.

I'm super grateful that I had picked up running in the past year and a half to build up some leg muscles. My left leg right now is the early MVP through all of this. (After my wife and kids, teammates, friends, coworkers, etc). Gosh, sorry, sidenote: I've been so grateful to have an amazing family and friends. Really makes my eyes watery. My inner resolve is strong, but their support is what makes it spark.

I listened to Twiddle's live stream from Vibes and Sara came back for lunch.  We shuffled ourselves off to Bone & Joint. I hopped into the building, into the elevator, into the reception area (but 'nooo' not that line, lolz), into the waiting room, and then into the exam room.

I of course was hoping it wasn't anything serious, but it felt serious. On the way over, I said that I was just going to brace for the worst and hope for the best.

The nurse came in, asked a few questions. I'm sorry I don't know the technical term for these roles but the Crutches Delivery Lady came in with crutches, sized them up for me, and gave me a short demo. Never before. I hopped back up and waited for the doctor to come in.

Told him my story and he compared it to a bonehead move Mark Tiexiera made recently running through a stop signal at third base. Okay, so at least he understood my plight. He felt around on the knee and basically told me that it was likely an ACL tear. 70% sure he said. Something like that. I follow sports. I play fantasy football, baseball, etc. I knew what this meant. My season was over. My running season was over. And the recovery is long. I knew what it meant immediately.

I used my crutches to hobble to another waiting room to get an X-Ray on the knee. After the X-Ray I hobbled back towards the exam room and he showed me the images. He basically confirmed his suspicion that it was an ACL tear, likely a Segund Fracture. 100% likely he said. And that surgery would be in my future. I understood this. We still needed to have an MRI to confirm.

Back in the exam room, the Brace Delivery Guy came in with my new besty. He adjusted the straps or whatever and showed me how to take it on and off. We put it on and now I was all braced up. Half robot. Half man.

I scheduled my follow up appointment for the 17th. The MRI would be sometime before, since it had to be approved by insurance first.  I'm so thankful we have insurance. Don't not have it. You never know!

I made Sara take a picture of me with my new robot apparatus so I could show and tell. A lot of really nice people had a lot of really nice supportive things to say, and I'm super grateful again. Super grateful.

My attitude then (and 4 days later kickstarting this blogg recapping these thoughts) was one of positiveness. I should probably save some of my philosophies for another post since we're already getting wordy here but basically the basic premise is that this is just a set back, a knock down. We all know what happens to things that get knocked down. They get back up again. I'm not down. I'm not out. I'm not finished. I've barely just started. This is a setback but it's not the end.

Afterward, we picked up the girls, went home and took it easy the rest of the night!

Living that sweet robot life. Check me out now!

Twiddle Live at Seaside Park - Gathering of the Vibes on 2015-07-31
Intro, Beethoven And Green, White Light, The Catapillar, Amydst The Myst, Cabbage Face, Carter Candlestick