Category Archives: Sports Girl

Knee holds up through basketball season

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Sports Girl (35) grabs for the ball from an opponent. The poor girl holding the ball had broke her nose in a previous game. Playing sports can sure be dangerous!

Sports Girl’s first high school basketball season has gone fairly well. She hasn’t set any freshman scoring records or anything, but she has been consistently able to play at up to the junior varsity level.

And while the season hasn’t been completely without incident or injury, remarkably, nothing has involved her knee. And it’s not like she hasn’t taken more than one or two nasty spills onto her knee or knees on the hardwood or tile basketball courts across South Dakota.

The surgery she endured over a year ago where a cadaver ligament was attached to her left femur and patella to replace her MPFL has so far proven successful in stabilizing her knee. She has had no further subluxation or dislocation issues, and she has had very little discomfort in her knee.

She did, however, sprain her left ankle about a month ago, and she has had some pain from shin splints. The ankle sprain has continued to plague her, requiring constant taping during all practices and games to keep her ankle from rolling again, and continued icing afterwards. Now she has developed an allergic rash and a friction blister on her left heel from all of the taping.

These injuries are really incidental. At least I think they are. I say that because I find it odd that all of her weaknesses appear to be on her left side. She had the most trouble with the Achilles tendon pain during soccer on her left leg. And now her left ankle has given out, as well.

Sports Girl has been diligently strength training in the weight room, so I don’t think her left side can really be that much weaker than her right. Can it? Or could it all somehow be related to her knee surgery?

Either way, I still declare the knee surgery a success. At least so far. Sports Girl is gradually regaining her confidence, and she doesn’t seem to worry about her knee any more. The reward is seeing that competitive spark return to her eye … and when she grits her teeth, watch out!

Successful Surgery Sees Sports Girl Through Soccer Season

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Sports Girl has finished her first post-operation soccer season without incident! She made it to every practice and played in all 10 junior varsity games for her high school.

Sports Girl (maroon) goes for the ball in a high school girls junior varsity soccer game.

If you look closely, you can see part of Sports Girl's scar on her left knee here.

And while she may not be quite as strong competitively as she was before her knee issues began, she was mostly without pain and without worry that her knee would pop out of place throughout the intense, 7-week season. And she didn’t wear a knee brace at all!

So as we approach the one-year anniversary of her surgery coming in mid-December, I am almost ready to declare it a complete success. My only hesitation is seeing how things go on the basketball court.

You see, it was the first week of middle school basketball practice that delivered the final blow to Sports Girl’s knee issues at the end of October last year. Basketball involves more jumping and quick turning than soccer, and the hard indoor court is actually harder on Sports Girl’s knee than the soft grass soccer field even if it is sometimes uneven. Basketball shoes do provide more support and shock absorption than soccer cleats, thankfully, and we will soon be shopping for Sports Girl’s new high tops.

High school girl’s basketball won’t actually start until around Thanksgiving. Between now and then Sports Girl plans to keep running and lifting weights a few times each week at the local recreation center to stay strong and ready to play.

Sports Girl has worked hard the past 10 months to recover with physical therapy, performance training and other practices and workouts. She can’t quit now or the results of all her hard work could all but disappear in the six or seven weeks she has off in between soccer and basketball. So while Sports Girl is looking forward to a break from regular team practices these next several weeks, I know she has no intention of giving up on her physical progress.

Ortho Releases Sports Girl for Sports, Physical Activities

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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 …