Lemonade and Life

I’ve got a torn ACL. I found out yesterday at a visit with a surgeon that gave me the results of his exam and an MRI I had last week.

Don’t feel too bad for me. I’ve had this for (I’m guessing) eleven years. In that time I’ve

• run every day for over 4 years,
• studied karate for 5 years and earned a black belt
• snowboarded over 150 days
• played 6 seasons of baseball at all positions outside of pitcher/catcher
• played volleyball
• practiced yoga and Pilates
• picked up and carried my kids plenty of times
• played weekly volleyball for over a year.

I’ve done plenty more and felt fairly normal. The knee has been slightly unstable at times, but I’ve just limited, not eliminated, activity.

I need to get this fixed. It’s becoming a problem, and it aches fairly constantly. It also limits my ability to engage in some activities that I think are important for my long term health. Not having an ACL also potentially means that I am hastening future issues as I age. It’s a fairly routine and simple surgery, and I should be walking on my own inside a week. The downside is that I can’t fly for 4 weeks afterwards because of potential blood clot issues.

This means I need a 4 week hole in my schedule, which can be hard to find. I may cancel or miss some events, and I’ll apologize in advance now. I’ll give as much notice as possible, but something will have to give, and it will likely be in the Apr/May/June time frame.

Let’s be clear. I’m not complaining here. My life is amazing and I couldn’t ask for things to be going better. This is, at worst, a minor hassle in my life. Surgery is dangerous, and there could be complications, and I’ll lose a few weeks of activity, but that’s a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things. I’ll get this fixed and move on.

Life does throw issues at you. Many of you have had much worse situations than this minor injury. I’ve had worse things for sure, and I try to remember that the trials and troubles I face are a part of life. I can let them get me down, and sometimes they do, but I can also look past them and remember all the good in life I’ve had, and look forward to the good things I’ll find later.