Sports Injuries
During the NCAA basketball tournament, its tough to see a player suffer an injury. Every time someone goes down, I am distinctly reminded of the pain and scars of my injuries playing sports as kid and young adult. From having a tooth knocked out, countless sprained ankles, a bunch of stitches, back surgery and tearing a cartilage in my knee, the injuries still impact me years later. Fortunately, I don’t recall ever suffering a concussion that seems so prevalent today.
Regarding the torn cartilage in my right knee, in those days before arthroscopy, one had to go under the knife to have the meniscus repaired. The recovery was long and painful, having to be on crutches for weeks and avoiding sports of any kind for about 6 months. The injury occurred at a YMCA and happened because I did not properly warm up. That 4” incision on my right knee is a constant reminder of the injury (people think I’ve had knee replacement surgery), plus the occasional pain that still occurs if overdo it or I make a wrong move. Contrast that experience more recently when I tore the meniscus on my left knee while playing tennis. Arthroscopic surgery was performed in an outpatient clinic that I walked out of with no crutches and got back to playing golf and tennis within a few days.
The back surgery was due to not a single injury but an accumulation of problems over the years. After going to a chiropractor with little success, I was about to go under the knife when my mother-in-law fortunately saw an article in one of her magazines about a new procedure called laparoscopic spine surgery. I called the 800 number she gave me and as it turns out there was a surgeon experienced in the new technique about a half mile from where I worked. The procedure was scheduled on a day off, and I was able to returned to work the next day, allowing me to keep my perfect work attendance record intact that still existed when I retired 20+ years later.
The physical therapy after the procedure included stretching exercises shown in the chart below that I still perform to this day before playing tennis and golf to help with my flexibility and prevent further pain and injury. They work!
During the NCAA basketball tournament, its tough to see a player suffer an injury. Every time someone goes down, I am distinctly reminded of the pain and scars of my injuries playing sports as kid and young adult. From having a tooth knocked out, countless sprained ankles, a bunch of stitches, back surgery and tearing a cartilage in my knee, the injuries still impact me years later. Fortunately, I don’t recall ever suffering a concussion that seems so prevalent today.Regarding the torn cartilage in my right knee, in those days before arthroscopy, one had to go under the knife to have the meniscus repaired. The recovery was long and painful, having to be on crutches for weeks and avoiding sports of any kind for about 6 months. The injury occurred at a YMCA and happened because I did not properly warm up. That 4” incision on my right knee is a constant reminder of the injury (people think I’ve had knee replacement surgery), plus the occasional pain that still occurs if overdo it or I make a wrong move. Contrast that experience more recently when I tore the meniscus on my left knee while playing tennis. Arthroscopic surgery was performed in an outpatient clinic that I walked out of with no crutches and got back to playing golf and tennis within a few days.
The back surgery was due to not a single injury but an accumulation of problems over the years. After going to a chiropractor with little success, I was about to go under the knife when my mother-in-law fortunately saw an article in one of her magazines about a new procedure called laparoscopic spine surgery. I called the 800 number she gave me and as it turns out there was a surgeon experienced in the new technique about a half mile from where I worked. The procedure was scheduled on a day off, and I was able to returned to work the next day, allowing me to keep my perfect work attendance record intact that still existed when I retired 20+ years later.
The physical therapy after the procedure included stretching exercises shown in the chart below that I still perform to this day before playing tennis and golf to help with my flexibility and prevent further pain and injury. They work!
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