I'm going to the Theater, and there's going to be blood.

April 20th, a very large, very strong and very new white belt tried to sweep my leg during Randori. For those non-Judokas, that means just "free-practice." This fellow is very nice, and until this night had refused to throw me at all, for fear of hurting me. Being that I've been slammed into the mat more times than I can recall, I told him over and over again to just be normal with me, and that he'd not hurt me. Ha. I should have added that this was only if he integrated tsukuri (off balancing me). He put his foot down against mine, so my left leg was blocked, then tried to shove me over his leg (to my left) with brute force. Problem is, my knee doesn't bend that way, and without the tsukuri, all that happened was my body above the knee went one way and the parts below the knee stayed stationary. I heard- as did he, I think, I loud POP-POP and we both froze. I knew something bad had happened, but thought since it only mildly hurt that it wasn't serious. This was something that could have happened easily to anyone- just to be clear. This guy is not un-skilled, and he was going for a gentle throw, and it was just one of those flukey things that could happen to anyone.

Later that night the mild pain and wobbly feeling turned into rockets of pain if the knee bent. In the morning I got a ride to the ER and was told it was likely a meniscus or other ligament tear, but that there was no bone in it so not to worry too much. I was to stay off it for a few days and go follow up with a Sports Dr. 8 days later when I could get a ride to said Sports Dr. (it's holidays left and right here, and I couldn't get a ride to go earlier as I was supposed to), she tortured me for a bit, then said she thought it was a more serious tear, with cartilage flipped under bone that would need theater (surgery) to repair. She sent me back to the hospital to meet with an orthopedic surgeon right then and there

Sigh. NOW, this Dr. did a very light exam and said immediately that his gut feeling was that it was an ACL (anterior cruciate ligament- one of the main ligaments on the knee) tear. I already knew that this was the worst-case scenario, as the other Dr's had casually and briefly mentioned this tendon.

A very expensive and immediate MRI (it's a "real" hospital, they have an MRI there) confirmed his gut feeling and I'm scheduled for a full ACL reconstructive surgery Wednesday (May 4th) at the Stellenbosch MediClinic. This is the private hospital network in South Africa, and the one everyone, and I mean everyone says is the place to go. So far I'm impressed with the care as my surgeon has emailed me personally, and in the ER, the Dr. himself came to get me after my series of X-rays. They've all been very kind, informative and attentive.

The kicker is this: there's something about the body's reaction to this injury that makes it a surgery they won't do after 14 days from the injury date. This all happened so fast, that I can't really remember the details right now, but if I don't have the surgery Wednesday, I can't have it for 6 weeks. AND cause it's "holiday season" in South Africa now, and my diagnosis was made late Friday, not one lick of information has been sent to my International Insurance company and the hospital will cancel the surgery if they don't get a letter of guarantee by the surgery. Today (Monday) is flippin' Banana day or something, so literally, the insurance company will have one day to make the approval. I'll be sweating bullets tomorrow (and being an utter pest to the surgeons office until I get confirmation that they've sent it), that's for sure.

The surgery itself seems to be pretty standardized. They don't have the same cadaver supply here that they do in the U.S., so I'll have hamstring grafts taken from my right leg. They drill through the femur to get to the tendon to make the repair, and though there's some open incisions, it's kept pretty minimal. From reading other people's ACL repair blogs, I expect to be on my feet with crutches within a few days, and to put full weight on the knee within 2 weeks, for sure. After that, the physical therapy is to begin (again, insurance allowing) and in 6 weeks I'll be able to ride a stationary bike (the "stationary" part was highly emphasized) and in 6 months (MONTHS) I'll be able to get back to Judo.

To say the least, this shredded ligament has derailed my "training" and I'm trying to see the positives. If anyone has any- besides "it could be worse," I'm all ears. I'm not sure yet how this will impact my studies, but I've been a good student so far, and I should be able to take exams, so I think it will all work out.

On a side note, the night of my diagnosis, a homeless cat that I've blogged about got herself knocked up (I guess she didn't take advantage of all the free condoms) and was crying outside in the cold. I found her and took her into my room (which is very much not allowed, but she's been living in people's flats the whole semester, anyway). I realized what was going on, and made a little bed for her and watched her abdomen cramps. During the night she painfully (she's very young herself) gave birth to 3 live (one dead) kittens. I'm sharing my bed now with this family until they're old enough to be sent out into the world (homes or a shelter). Elizabeth did find a home for the mama though, on a vineyard, so she's all set. I'm going to see how much it will be to fix her and see if the other people who have taken her in will go in with me to take care of her. Her personality is much improved since giving birth- she's very affectionate (though a rough mother, to say the least).