Bury my skis at wounded knee

I was so excited for ski season this year. I had my skis, helmet, goggles, new ski pants, and a great ski pass. I was ready to go. All I needed were some lessons and some snow. Well, that was until the night of Tuesday, Sepetember 18th. It was our young adult group's flag football night, and I was excited. I hadn't played flag football in a couple years, and I had missed out on ultimate frisbee the previous Sunday because I was salmon fishing. This was going to be awesome. I started out playing quarterback for our team, but people were having difficulty catching, so I switched to a receiver. I was wide open, but our quarterback threw an interception trying to throw to another guy who was pretty well covered. The quarterback did a good job of grabbing the guys flag though, so we were good. So the other team is on offense. It's first down. They throw up a pass, and I knocked it down. I thought to myself, "I should have intercepted that". So on second down, I did just that. I took the ball and I started running. I made it about 15 feet, and as I attempted to juice it around a guy, I heard an awful noise come from my right knee. That's when I went down and felt the pain. I had twisted my knee again, and it was almost identitical to the time I had twisted it playing tennis with my father in Florida. The pain just wouldn't stop, and then the endorphins started rushing through my body. I think it was the endorphins made me woozy because soon, I started feeling like I was going to pass out, so I just laid down. The nice people at the group grabbed me some ice for my knee and some gatorade and a granola bar to give me some energy. Pretty soon, I was feeling better, but my knee was in pretty bad shape.

The next day, I called my sister, and she said I should see an orthopedic surgeon, so I called around to a few places in my plan. Most of them were booked, but one place said they could get me an appointment with a Physician's Assistant, that's what my sister is, the following day, which sounded fine to me.

So Thursday the 20th, I made my way to the Steadman Hawkins clinic, which I later found out is pretty much the best place you can go for knee injuries in Denver if not the United States. I met with the PA, he took some XRays, and then he said that my bones looked good, but he though we should schedule an MRI. He also gave me crutches and a knee brace that won't let my knee bend past 45 degrees. So I setup an appointment for an MRI on Tuesday, and then I headed over to start physical therapy. I was a little surprised that they would do this without knowing what the problem is, but these guys really know what they're doing. By doing therapy early and through knee repairs, recovery time is significantly decreased. Who knew? They mainly worked on my range of motion, and they put the world's most expensive ice pack on my knee, which was awesome. It's actually a machine that fills up a sleeve with cold water, so you have the cold and pressure, which works wonders.

So Tuesday I went in and got my MRI, and yesterday, I received the results. So the PA informed me that my ACL is torn, I have a small tear in my Medial Meniscus, there is a lot of bone bruising, and I should stay on the crutches. I have to schedule a follow up meeting, but I'm probably headed for surgery. So much for ski season! I'm pretty sure that I tore my ACL playing tennis in Florida in April of 2006, which is why I injured my knee so easily this time. I guess the good news is that I'll have some really qualified people performing the surgery and helping me recover. Here's a picture of what's wrong with my knee:


Please send gifts and donations to the Ryan Kane Knee Memorial Surgery Assistance Fund (RKKMSAF).