When I Fail, I fail Epically

Alrighty. If you’ve been following my posts, you know that one of my many New Years resolutions was to run a 10K in March. Needless to say, I did not make the race and it wasn’t because I can’t run 6 miles. I hit the 6 mile mark the week before the race. Unfortunately, I also went to New Orleans the week before my race for the American Pharmacists Association Conference. From there, it all went downhill.

My trip started off great! I had no trouble in the airport where normally I get patted down because I guess I look suspicious. I swear; it never fails. Fair enough for the security to assume...maybe I am suspicious. With THAT many people in an airport, you KNOW there’s a creep is out there. Its just plain probability.

When I arrived in New Orleans, I prepared to run for a national office or a pharmacy society. Long story short, I lost to a fair competitor and went to Bourbon Street. I made it 20 minutes or approximately half a hurricane later and dislocated my patella. How you ask? Well, I was coming down a ladder in a club and I won’t go into details, but it was probably one of the least graceful things I have ever done in my life. It would be up there next to hitting a parked car on my bicycle while trying to avoid a person on the sidewalk or missing a stair coming out of the sorority house on bid day and mooning my new sisters. Nothing says sisterhood like looking at a pledge’s backside. Heeellooooo!

When I felt my patella pop out of place, I felt sick. Not hurricane sick, but sick in realizing I had a body part move in a way it was not meant. My knee popped back into place when took weight off it but I knew if I didn’t ice it soon, it would get ugly, fast. I immediately had a friend escort me back to the hotel for some RICE (rest, ice, compression, and elevation) therapy and to be told it would be ok. On my way out, a random person called me by name and told me that he thought I should have won my election with my memorable speech. Learning lesion of the day/night:

1.) 1.) Don’t climb ladders on Bourbon Street

2.) 2.) Wear closed toe shoes on Bourbon Street

3.) 3.) Win or loose, you will be remembered by the message you deliver. Best part of the night!

Anyway, when I get back home, my mother freaks out about my knee and forces me to go to the doctor. So I go to a fancy walk-in sports medicine clinic where they take X-Rays, the doctor talks uncomfortably close to you, and feels your legs (and get this, your paying him!). He informs me that he’s 80% sure that I have torn my ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament- see figure below). I proceed to tell him that he is wrong based on no orthopedic experience once-so-ever. I get to my car and start to cry because I realize that on the chance that he is right, I would have to have surgery, which I don’t have the time or money for when a wedding is around the corner.

A week later, I get an MRI which revealed that my ACL was intact (personal victory) BUT…I had fluid on my knee and bruising behind my patella and on the bone that the patella hit when it slide out of place. Needless to say, I was not able to run the 10K, and was out of commission for 3 weeks. As of this week I was able to start back out slowly on flat ground. It was an arduous 2 miles but I finished the run. Sometimes life is not about how quickly you get somewhere, but about the climb.