Journal

First of all I'd like to inform you that Daniel's surgery went well and that he could leave the hospital after just a few days. Meshes had to be used in both groins, but thanks to modern medical technology, he'll be able to put full strain on his body in just a few weeks. Unfortunately my surgery was more complicated, but hopefully the worst will soon be over, too. 6 weeks of crutches wear you out quite a bit, so I'm really glad to see the end approaching. But let's start from the beginning:

At the end of October, I was definitely sick and tired of having to deal with my knee problems. Since neither the MRI findings nor other tests provided clear results, I wanted to finally gain certainty and therefore decided on a diagnostic knee arthroscopy. Of course I had initially wanted to avoid this surgical intervention in hopes of making it through the season without one. In order to support my knee in rebuilding the cartilage, I had tried everything from physical therapy, rehabilitation training, electrotherapy, through to intra-articular injections with hyaluronic acid and cortisone. Although I had intensively tried conventional methods, all the little issues I had hadn't improved much since the summer. Our team doctor recommended a spinal anesthesia for the surgery, so that I could take a look inside the knee myself and maybe thus attain a psychological effect, too. After all, the time before the surgery was certainly difficult from a psychological point of view. Since there didn't seem to be a long-term solution, I had already started to resign myself to thinking about a life without the sport. Daniel and I have often been said to belong to the kind of athletes who would really do anything for their sport. The sport should certainly not be the sole basis for your own life, but our passion is so huge that it's hard to find this threshold.

I was awake during the surgery and could thus follow on the screen what exactly the doctors saw in my knee and how they treated it. There are surely people who wouldn't want to be exposed to something like this, but with my surgeons, I felt that I was in very good hands, and I trusted them completely. Okay, cracking jokes may have actually relaxed the atmosphere after all, but this wouldn't have been advisable for apparent practical reasons.

Afterwards, the senior physician explained to me in detail what he had done. Contrary to the earlier MRI findings, there were distinct tears in both the lateral and the medial meniscus that had to be repaired. I spent the following 2 nights in hospital, which was probably a wise decision since I wasn't able to get up yet. Daniel then picked me up from the hospital and took me home. The first few days meant complete bed rest, so I always had to call for him or for one of the other roommates for each ice pack and everything. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who were forced to reskill to patient transporters, nurses, waiters, or carers. You couldn't have done it better.

After I was more or less back on my feet and could move around on my own, my knee unfortunately started to swell up so extremely that I had to see the doctor again 3 weeks after the surgery to get punctured. Luckily, the healing process has made steady progress ever since. The doctors, physical therapists, as well as I myself are positive that I will soon be able to return to the ice.

A happy holiday season and Merry Christmas,

Carolina