ACL Reconstruction and Meniscus Repair

I'm sure almost everyone already knows this but I don't want to leave this off my blog.

On November 12, 2013 (11/12/13 easy to remember) Kaitlynn was playing in her fifth middle school basketball game of the season. It was a home game and there was a pretty big crowd there to support them. 

The picture below was the last picture I took that night.

Not long after that picture was taken, it happened. Kaitlynn, a post player who is awesome on defense, took the ball from the other team and was on a fast break on her way down the court. She was going up for a layup when all of a sudden she hit the floor hard. It was awkward and strange. There were two girls beside her but neither one of them had fouled her or even touched her. Kaitlynn laid on the floor in tears. She couldn't get up. It took the help of her coach and the coach of the boys' team to get her off the court. After they got her on the bench I walked over to see what was going on. She said the back of her knee hurt bad and she couldn't walk on it. I tried to get her to get up and try to "walk it out" but she couldn't. After the game ended we had to borrow the crutches of one of her teammates (who was out due to a broken foot) to get her to the car. The next day we were able to get her an appointment at Knoxville Orthopaedeic Clinic.  

It would be the first of many trips. At the first visit her knee was too swollen to do much. About a week later we went back for the MRI. The MRI showed a completely torn ACL and some meniscus damage. The next step was physical therapy. Her doctor said he would not schedule the surgery until she went through a few weeks of therapy. He wanted her knee as strong as possible before the surgery. Finally the surgery was scheduled.

On December 31, 2013 Kaitlynn WALKED into East Tennessee Children's Hospital for her surgery. About twelve hours later she left. In a lot of pain and not able to walk. The surgery went great. She had ACL reconstruction - patellar tendon graft and meniscus repair surgery. She spent lots of extra time in recovery due to a reaction to the anesthesia. About five hours after the surgery we were finally able to get her to a place where the nurses thought it would be okay to release her.

Within a few days she was already back at physical therapy.

Two weeks after surgery the stitches came out!

On January 23rd Kaitlynn walked out on the basketball court for the last home game of the season.

Of course she didn't get to play but she was there for her team.

She was even recognized since it was also 8th grade night.

Kaitlynn with the rest of the 8th grade girls.

All the 8th graders with their coaches.

Kaitlynn went to therapy three times a week for the first few months after surgery.

Therapy was great for her! It was hard but she was determined. At the one month post-op mark Kaitlynn had regained full range of motion of her knee! Some patients never get that back.

Kaitlynn continues to work hard. She wants back on that soccer field in the fall. On June 26th she is hoping her doctor releases her to go back to sports. Until then she will continue to work to strengthen her knee and hopefully get it even stronger than it was before she injured it.

Mono strikes again!

What a rough few months it has been for our family! First Kaitlynn tore her acl and meniscus in a middle school basketball game. (Post to follow on that shortly.) Then I developed a stress fracture from training for the Glass Slipper Challenge. (More details on that later.) Now Kylee has mono! Hopefully, this will be it for a while. I've always heard these things happen in threes.

I guess this all started with Kylee at the end of February. She would complain of a sore throat and then she said she was fine. Then she would complain again. This went on for 5-6 days before I decided to take her to the pediatrician. Once there the nurse practitioner said this could be strep or mono. She ran the strep test first and because it was positive she skipped the mono test. Fast forward a few weeks and Kylee comes down with the stomach virus. We don't think too much of it because Trey, Kaitlynn and Kendall also come down with the virus. The following week was spring break and we enjoyed a great week at Walt Disney World. Once we got back home Kylee came down with the stomach virus again! She was sick for about a day and a half. At this point I'm thinking she has had a really bad run of luck. Then Kylee comes down with the stomach virus again the next week. Three times in four weeks! Is that possible? She had been really tired and weak but of course that could have been caused from being sick. After watching her struggle in her third soccer game I realized we needed to go back to the doctor. It's not like Kylee to complain and she was complaining. She was still playing soccer but was holding her side and trying as hard as she could but she wasn't playing anything like the way she normally plays. It seemed really hard for her.

I took her to her doctor who immediately suspected mono. She said since I'm a mother of four and not in the office all the time for every little thing that she knew it had to be something other than a stomach bug. She ordered lots of tests. They did blood work, a stool sample, an abdominal x-ray and of course the mono test. The blood work came back and said it was definitely viral, the stool sample was clear and the x-ray did not show a blockage. Two days later the mono results came back. I missed the call but had a voicemail from her doctor to call her back. I knew it wasn't going to be good news when it was her doctor calling and not one of the nurses.

When I called back her doctor said she got the mono results back and Kylee's test was off the charts. It was mono! Of course there's not much to do about mono except rest and fluids. Well and also protecting the spleen which means several weeks off from soccer. That's definitely the hardest part, especially for a child that is as active as she is.

About two and a half years ago Kaitlynn was diagnosed with mono. It's possible that Kylee caught it from her. Once you get mono it never really goes away. The virus remains in your body and can become active from time to time. You may show no symptoms but you can be contagious. What does this mean? We could all end up with mono at some point in our lives. Kylee could have also caught it from one of her friends that had it a couple of months ago. We will never really know where she got it just like we still don't now how Kaitlynn got it. 

Hopefully, Kylee recovers quickly. I've read it isn't as hard on younger children. 

Kylee's Spring School Picture

Kendall's Spring School Picture

Pictures from Kylee's 6th Birthday Party

It's a late post... Kylee's party was over two months ago, but I really wanted to share these pictures.

c