It’s been a long time since I have posted, and I know many of you are following Sports Girl’s progress as she recovers from her MPFL replacement surgery. To you I apologize.

I hope you assumed that no news was good news, because things continue to go well. Sports Girl steadily cut her times in both the 800k and 1600k in track through mid-May. She went back to her orthopedic surgeon on June 2, and – as we had anticipated – was fully released to resume all of her former physical activities and sports. It was a great day, and barring any future complications or other issues, it was our last visit to this doctor. While we would recommend this physician to anyone without hesitation, for reasons that should be obvious, we are grateful that Sports Girl doesn’t have any future appointments scheduled with him.

Since then, Sports Girl has been strength training and conditioning three times a week in a summer training program offered by the local high school athletic trainer/physical therapist. She has also participated in open gyms twice a week in preparation for basketball; she has even played in a few summer league basketball games.

She had some discomfort in her left knee during the first basketball she played, but subsequent games seemed to go better. I am sure my knees would hurt if I tried to play a basketball game in my out-of-shape state, so hopefully her pain was due more to her lack of recent activity than to the surgery itself.

It’s been a little over 6 months since Sports Girl had her surgery. While we had hoped her recovery would progress much faster, all her caregivers have said she has done remarkably well.

Just yesterday I took Sports Girl to our local family practitioner for her annual sports physical examination. This is the same doctor who referred us to the orthopedic surgeon at almost exactly this time last year. Since Sports Girl has not had cause to see a doctor this past year other than for her knee surgery, our family doctor hadn’t known how his referral had turned out. He was genuinely interested, and we were thankful that he knew of a doctor who took a proactive approach to frequent patellar subluxation issues. I know of a couple of middle-aged women who have just lived with this problem and the pain and discomfort that goes with it for much of their lives.

It seems we have come full circle, and Sports Girl is looking forward to a successful year playing soccer and basketball as a freshman in high school. I’ll have to post pictures …