New Knees Please

Posted By: AllysonEsielionis
Posted On: January 4th, 2019
Attending: Athlone Institute of Technology

For those of you that have been following my basketball career for a while, welcome back. To those of you that are new here, I have horrible knees. I have had knee problems all of my life but things took a turn for the serious at the beginning of last year’s season. 4 days into my Senior season I tore my meniscus. Through the diagnostic process, I also learned that I had a partial-chronic tear in my ACL. I remember sitting in the training room office crying in my meeting with the on-staff doctor because she led with “You have a tear in your ACL” instead of “You can continue to play, you may have had this for a while”. After regaining my composure, we agreed that the conversation could probably have been worded better to avoid the tears. Learning it was something I could power through was the best news I could have received. I was fitted with a brace for pain and stability and carried on. I got surgery at the end of the season and stitched my meniscus up (gross).

Stitches meant that I was in for the longest possible recovery for the procedure. I was on crutches and in a brace for much longer than I had hoped but it was okay because it meant I was on my way to getting back to my 100%. When I got my surgery I thought I was done with basketball, but when I was accepted into the Victory Scholar program I saw a whole new future. I was excited to play another season of basketball, this one with two good knees. You can imagine my disappointment sitting in my surgeon’s office looking over my latest MRI, listening to her tell me that I’ve torn it again and will need another surgery. It’s hard to hear a doctor tell you that she’s unsure if you’ll be able to finish your season with the state your knee is in when all you want to do is play basketball. However, I’ve done it before and I’m ready to do it again. My friend Liv used to regularly quote “If you fall down 7 times you’ve got to get up 8” and it was the first thing that came to mind sitting in that office. I’m going to give it my absolute all these last few months of our season and worry about the rest when it comes. I can’t wait to get back on the court this week doing what I love most!

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