The Confirmation Of The Worst

I went back to the doc after five days, like he'd asked me to. He seemed satisfied with the progress and said that I ought to recover completely in a couple of weeks. And so I waited for a couple of weeks. I still could not bend my knee completely. I had some pain too. I thought that I should wait for another week, see if it gets any better, before consulting the doc again. 

On November 2nd, when my knee hadn't improved a lot, I went to see the doc. He told me that in order to make the best assessment, I had to get an MRI scan done. I got the scan done immediately and went back to the doc. He'd gone home for lunch and I had to wait for sometime. During that time, I decided to read the report myself. To me, a complete novice in the medical field, the report seemed to convey some bad news. I read of an "interstitial tear of the anterior cruciate ligament" and a "grade one injury to the medial meniscus" in the report. The doctor only confirmed my fears. The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) was indeed torn. He told me that it looks like we were heading for a surgery. That was the only way to fix it. He told me that the surgery was arthroscopic and it involved taking a part of the tendon from the patella and inserting it in the place of the torn ligament. And I had to wait for a couple of weeks at least, to get the surgery done. This was because I had damages to my bones as well (which he termed as bony contusions) and they had to heal. After the surgery, I'd have to use crutches for three weeks and then a knee-brace for another three. He reassured me by saying that he'd got it done 15 years ago and he was all fine now. I asked him, very apprehensively, if I would be able to play football again, after the six weeks. He told me that it's his job to get me to play again! That brought a smile to my face, thinking that I'd be able to play after ten weeks. Yeah ten weeks was too long, but I could at least play again.

As soon as I stepped out of the JOC, disappointment crept in. I wondered how that guy could kick so hard. I knew that the rupture of cruciate ligament was a long term injury. But I'd never thought that I would have one, one day. In my playing of FIFA, should any player suffer from this injury, I used to see that he was out for 24 weeks or so and I immediately would hit Alt+F4! Couldn't do that to life now, could I. I said to myself that I'd help myself by staying completely positive through this period. Just 4 weeks had elapsed since the injury and I was already missing football. I wouldn't be able to play for a long time to come. I had to be braced for a tough time ahead. The best preparation for that would be to stay positive and relaxed. With those thoughts, I smiled and made my way home.