For the First Time in Ten Years

Perhaps I jinxed myself with my last blog post, for my knee got to the point where it was not a good idea to suck it up, and I probably wouldn't have been able to even if I wanted to.  It started out as some mild pain in my left knee, but wasn't anything unbearable, so I just put some knee pads on (for the first time in ten seasons of wrestling).  Then the knee started getting bigger, and so I became concerned.  The orthopedist diagnosed it as pre-patellar bursitis, but knew how important the upcoming regional tournament was, so he said I should be able to manage to wrestle that Saturday if I let my knee rest during the week.

That was on Monday.  By the time Thursday evening rolled around, it was getting worse by the hour.  I couldn't even bend the leg and the knee was so swollen that people thought I was wearing a brace under my jeans because it looked so big.  On Friday morning the orthopedist knew right away that something was wrong.  They drained two syringes of fluid from the knee but it still looked huge.  I was running a 101 fever and the knee was hot, so they determined that it was infected before the cultures of the fluid even came back.  It turns out I had contracted MRSA, a nasty strain of staph infection.  I didn't get to wrestle at regionals, and for the third year in a row, I couldn't compete at nationals.  That is how my college career ended.

If your knee looks like this, you know there's something wrong

My injuries throughout college couldn't have been more ill-timed.  I wrestled at nationals as a freshman and had high hopes after that, but never got another chance to become an All-American.  If things went right I'd be down in Daytona Beach, FL for the tournament that just got underway.  Instead, I gave a presentation in class today and wrote a report.  Words can't describe how frustrated and disappointed I am, but my coach pointed out that this season was a gift; due to my eye the odds were against me that I'd ever wrestle again.  There's not much I can do about it at this point except to get healthier.  I'm off to the next stage of my wrestling career, where I plan on coaching, officiating, or supporting wrestling in any way I can.

How I managed to get MRSA, I have no idea, but as far as the bursitis, I have no doubt that it was a cumulative result of ten years of hitting my knees on the mat without wearing knee pads.  I never bothered wearing them because guys always have to pause to pull them back up every time there is a break in the action, and so it seemed like too much of a hassle.  I guess all these seasons without them finally took a toll.  Even if your knees feel fine, I would advise that you wear knee pads so that you can preserve your joints - you only get one set of them, and a replacement knee when you're 50 years old is never quite the same as the original.

Wear some knee pads,
Jeff

P.S.  Please WASH your knee pads, too.  Those things reek when they get sweaty.