..Being involved in high school sports is something I think everyone should experience. For me, there is nothing better than being out on a basketball court, surrounded by cheering fans and teammates. Unfortunately, playing basketball hasn’t always been particularly easy for me. As a junior, I have sat on the bench in a knee brace the majority of my high school career. It has taken a lot of patience, dedication and hard work to overcome the obstacles of two major knee injuries and be back at the sport that I love.
Growing up, I was involved in three different sports and never encountered injuries. As an athlete, one thing you cannot wait for is being able to play varsity sports. Little did I know, my freshman year was going to be spent on the bench. In the spring before my freshman year, my summer ball team traveled to Owensboro, Kentucky for a tournament. It was my second game of the day, when I sprinted down the court, planted my foot wrong, felt a very large pop in my right knee, and fell to the ground. Rolling around like a fish out of water, feeling an immense amount of pain, getting an instant urge to vomit, the gym turning into complete silence and coaches running out on the court, all happened in the blink of an eye. Hearing the therapist say “It doesn’t look good” after doing multiple tests on my knee was scary to hear, even if I didn’t know much of what was going on. After what seemed like an eternity, my coaches packed me off the court, immediately putting ice on my knee to try to control the crazy amount of swelling that had already showed up. This was my first experience of having to watch the game from the bench and it was extremely hard. After a couple of days on crutches, I finally got an MRI at the hospital, only to find out that I had torn my ACL and meniscus and I would be out of basketball for at least eight months. Knowing I wouldn’t be able to play my first year of high school basketball was devastating.
I did a little bit of physical therapy first, and then came my first surgery. Nervous, but ready to get it over with, the doctors prepped me to go back and start my road to recovery. The surgeon gave me the anesthesia and told me to count to ten. I remember counting to four and the next thing I knew, I was waking up in the recovery room. Waking up was the hardest part of surgery. My eyelids felt like they were ten pounds each as I struggled to keep them open. The surgeon informed us that he had to remove sixty percent of my meniscus because it was so badly damaged. A couple hours later, the doctors cleared me to go home. After a few days of nothing but ice, medicine, and more ice, I started more physical therapy. A couple weeks later, and I was ready for the big surgery: the ACL reconstruction. After this surgery, I would be doing physical therapy full force, five days a week, until I was released to play basketball again. After a few weeks of therapy, I woke up one day at five o’clock in the morning with a terrible sharp pain running all through my leg, a fever and possibly the worst headache I’ve ever experienced, so… off to the ER again. After a couple of days in numerous doctors’ appointments and being poked by several needles for blood work, I found myself headed to yet another surgery due to an infection in my knee. Not only was I upset because I had to have another surgery, I knew I was going to be stuck in the operating room while all of my other friends are headed to their first day of high school. It almost seemed as if every time something seemed to go right, another thing went wrong. A couple days with ice and rest and I was back to physical therapy. After ninety-two dreadful, long, hard therapy sessions and countless obstacles, I was back to playing basketball.
Sophomore year began and I could not wait to finally be able to play varsity basketball. Wearing a big, bulky knee brace on my right knee, I made it through two good months of games. It was a Friday night and we had a game against Franklin Simpson. About three-fourths through the game, I turned to catch a pass, another large pop, this time in my left knee, and I fell to the ground. The gym became so quiet; you could have heard a pin drop. Instantly, I start crying while my coaches ran out on the court towards me. Although I was crying from pain, most of my crying was because of the amount of frustration I felt. I thought to myself, “There is no way I have torn my other knee too,” but I knew it felt just like the last injury. Again, the therapist did multiple tests, only this time he said he thought everything was okay. Knowing he was wrong, I tried to stay positive. A couple of days later, I had my MRI. The next day, I was sitting in the locker room with my team before a practice. I get a call from my mom to come outside because she has news from the doctor. I went outside, only for her to tell me that I had torn my ACL and meniscus again. Trying to hold back all tears, I go back into a silent locker room where everyone waited for me to tell the news. Before I get all the news out, I immediately started crying from disappointment. Like last time, I had my meniscus surgery first, therapy for a couple of weeks and then my last surgery: the second ACL reconstruction. The surgery was on game day, so I had to miss the game, and I hated that more than anything. A week later, I started therapy again. Therapy was long and very hard. Trying to walk right, straighten it out all of the way, and bend it to a certain degree took a lot of patience. Everything was hard: getting in and out of bed was hard, getting in and out of the shower was hard, going up and down the stairs was hard, and just simply walking was hard. Many falls, ice, doctors’ appointments, and 60 more therapy sessions later, the doctor finally gave me some of the best news I had received in a while. I was released to play basketball again. All that was left was to order yet another big, bulky brace.
Now two months from our first game of my junior season, and I couldn’t be more excited to be back on the court with my teammates. It literally took blood, sweat, and tears to be where I am now. All of my work the past two years finally paid off. Although sometimes I thought I would never make it back, I let the frustration go and used my minor setbacks as motivation for major comebacks. Five surgeries and 152 physical therapy sessions later, my knees are stronger than ever before.
Sporting Times update: We were all pulling for Madison to finish strong for the Lady Trojanettes basketball team. Unfortunately, we were notified that Madison in late January had torn her meniscus during a game, ending her season. Sporting Times will have a full article update and one on one with Madison in our March print issue. We wish her a speedy recovery.
