Knee Injury

It's been a while since I've posted an entry.  The reason being is that I've suffered an injury that has prevented me from running.  I've had nothing to really write about except my injury which I wasn't really in the mood to do.  I figure it's about time I do.

As some may know (unsure if I mentioned it in the past), I play co-ed soccer.  Outdoor in the summer and of course indoor in the winter.  Early January we had a typical game against a better team.  We were down 4-0 and I was standing in front of the net with my back to the goalie.  Early in the second half, my teammate Kris took a low shot from about 30 feet out.  The ball was coming straight for my legs, so I hopped to my left to avoid blocking the shot.  Upon landing, my left foot planted with my cleats sticking into the field.  My left knee buckled and I fell to the ground clutching my knee.  I heard cheering and the ref's whistle.  Not realizing that I was hurt, one of my opponents jokingly said "you're not getting credit for that goal".  I had apparently screened the goalie enough, that he couldn't react to the shot resulting in a goal.  I hopped off to our bench and held my knee tightly for a bit until someone could get me some ice.  I iced it a bit, then walked the sideline to test it out.  The more I walked, the more the pain subsided.  My knee felt better and I decided to re-enter the game.  I ended up scoring our second goal with a sweeping shot off a rebound while sliding to the ground.  We lost that game 5-2.

I didn't have any sports until the following week, so I rested my knee, running inclusive.    Sunday my Sticks team started co-ed ball hockey consolation playoffs and had a double header in round robin play.  Late in the first period, I was battling someone for position in front of the opposing goal and my knee buckled a bit.  It hurt, but wasn't painful.  I knew it wasn't bad, but I couldn't play on it and decided to sit the rest of the game.  I sat and watched our team defeat the 3rd Street Saints with 3-1 and tie 1-1 in the 2nd game.  As a result, our team made it to the consolation finals to be played the following week.  I opted to sit out my soccer game for that evening as well.

I had booked an appointment to see a sports doctor that week at Legacy.  After examining my knee, he didn't see anything too serious with it.  He said I can continue playing sports, but to monitor it.  He wanted to see me in a couple weeks for a follow up.  I took it easy all week to rest it before our finals.  We were again matched up with the 3rd Street Saints as we finished 1 and 2 in the round robin.  We fell 2-0 in the first 2 periods, but we didn't panic.  Early in the 3rd, my teammate Frosty (Jason), took a long shot, which hit the goalie's stick, bounced over and went in.  With under 2 minutes left, one of the opposing guys took a hooking penalty.  We pulled our goalie, Dave, with about a minute left, giving us a 5-3 advantage.  Their strategy was to pin the ball against the boards in their zone, to run out the clock.  Having tried to battle along the boards earlier, I wasn't too confident with my knee, so I let my teammates battle behind, to the left of the net.  One of my teammates kicked the ball lose and I snuck in there and pulled it out.  I curled out around a defender to the bottom of the circle and snapped a low shot that found the back of the net with 3 seconds left.  OT went scoreless and we had our first shootout.  For some reason my teammates consider me a leader on the team and wanted me to choose our shooters for the shootout, 2 guys, 2 girls.  I suck at breakaways, so I excluded myself and chose Frosty, Simon, Jenn with Roni volunteering for the 4th.  Saints shot first and Dave made an incredible stick save, reach back for the ball.  Frosty crafted a nice goal to put us up 1.  No one else scored the rest of the way, so Jenn didn't even have to take the final shot.  Victory!  We even won a trophy which Dave brought with him everywhere, including to bed (there's even photographic evidence).

Top - Ken, Frosty, Simon, Fab, Jenn, Steph, Roni
Bottom - Jim (former backup goalie), Steve, Dave, Me
Missing - Sandra, Carolyn, Derek and various spares throughout the season, notably John and Kris

The next night I had soccer after work.  I was defending a girl who was going to my left, then changed direction to my right.  I planted left to go right, and that's when I heard and felt a pop.  I went down immediately.  My teammates helped me off the field and into my car.  Upon arriving at home, I had to hop to my door in the garage, then sit and shuffle my way up 3 steps.  I could not bend my knee whatsoever.  I called in sick for the next morning and had 7 days off thereafter due to my shift work.  My left knee was swollen and considerably larger than my right, so I iced it constantly.  I was able to move my follow up from the following Tuesday to the upcoming Friday.