Feature Articles

Knee Injury

by Caitlin

It is easy to think of a sports injury in purely physical or athletic terms, but I learned the hard way that the effects can be much more far-reaching. At the end of my high school freshman year playing water polo, I went to the doctor regarding pain in my knee. After a consultation with an expert, an MRI, and an X-ray, my doctor landed a bomb: I had a small sack in the lining of my knee that was inflamed from rubbing against the bones in the joint. The sack was pushing my knee cap off to the side, which lead to more grinding. I had to stop playing sports. I needed to heal the injury.

In April I started physical therapy. Months later in August, after returning from a 3 week vacation, I went to a new physical therapist expecting to be cleared. Instead, I was devastated. The combination of leaving, and previous exercises not being aggressive enough, I had to start all over. For the next four months, I went to physical therapy 3 times a week on top of attending all of my water polo practices but without being able to participate.

Come girls…it’s just water.

I had always used sports as an outlet—without them I found myself becoming depressed and disconnected from my family and friends; I was taking my frustration out on everyone else because there was no one I could blame. Physical therapy and school exhausted me, and though I always wanted to sleep, I struggled through homework only doing the absolute minimum amount of work necessary. I also dealt with the fact that I would probably have knee pain throughout my life.

Finally, when my knee did get better, I realized the magnitude of damage my injury had caused: My first quarter grades were so bad I couldn’t bring them up by the semester; my friends and family were tired of putting up with my mood swings; and lastly, I felt like I had lost everything that mattered to me.

It took time, but I was able to slowly get my life back to normal. I learned that I can prosper in the most challenging of situations, and no matter how difficult it may be things will always get better. I also learned what was most important—that even though I love sports, there are so many other good things in my life…and that’s what I value most.

Oh yeah, we rock.