How it Happened & The First Week

Two months seems like forever ago. But here's how it happened. It was the day after Christmas and we were skiing for the holiday in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I am neither experienced nor enthusiastic about skiing, but things were going well enough. I decided to take a lesson the last day so the next time we skied hopefully I wouldn't be such a novice.

The lesson went well and I didn't fall once...until I caught my right ski in the powder and snow while the left knee kept going. I've played soccer for 27 years without serious knee injury, but the most dreaded thing that I imagined happening for all these years is an ACL injury. When I felt the pain as I crashed into the mountain, that's what I immediately yelled "My ACL!" amongst numerous expletives. The pain was immense!!

I was carted off the mountain on a snowmobile and met up with my husband who ported me off to the ER. The diagnosis was that I probably tore my MCL based upon the the various knee examinations the physician performed. I was sent back to our rented condo with a bottle of Percocet and knee immobilizer. We had a 14 hour drive home the next day followed by a visit to my primary care physician the day after.

My regular doctor also thought the MCL was the probable extent of the injury. Because this damage needs a stable knee and time to heal, I was ordered to keep the immobilizer on the knee (see the photo above from the day of the accident for all its glory) and stay on crutches. An MRI was scheduled for a week from that appointment and I was referred to an orthopedic surgeon. The catch, though, was that I was not allowed to schedule an appointment until after the MRI was completed.

I figured out I could drive my husband's automoatic transmission car after a few days and he took mine with its manual transmission. I was able to return to work when my vacation ended and didn't need the narcotic painkillers after a few days. This was replaced by over the counter Ibuprofin and Tylenol. I was definitely sore and awkward and looking forward to the MRI!