In addition to the emotional pains I was feeling, there were some physical ones too. At the end of March I also tore my meniscus. If you aren't sure what that is, I can explain it...The meniscus is the cartilage that sits between the femur and the tibia and fibula...It is the cushion that keeps your leg bones from rubbing together during physical activity...as you may already know, right before I left for china, I tore both of my ACLs (the ligament on the inside of your knee that keeps it from moving too far inward). The left one was a complete tear. I have been taking very good care of it, and decided that I felt okay to 'play' a little. So I decided I would help out with PE because they are doing baseball right now, and I love to play...well needless to say, I shouldn't have been playing.
So on a cold rainy Wednesday afternoon, I took my first trip to a Chinese hospital! I was a little nervous because I wasn't sure what I would encounter there, but it was actually a fairly pleasant trip. However, the doctor didn't spend much time with me and told me that everything was fine, and I just needed to rest it for 3 weeks...I was like...ummm...I'm a teacher, so that's really not doable.
Luckily, knowing what a knee injury is like (from the previous injuries) I knew that it wasn't okay. So I asked them to do an MRI anyway. They of course agreed, cause you just pay for stuff here in China, there is none of this crazy insurance scandal kind of stuff...so I paid about $80 for an MRI and that was that. A few days later, I went back to let them tell me what it said...all of this is in chinese mind you, luckily I had a great friend who could go and help with that...when I handed it to the doctor, he said that I had torn my meniscus....he said it in English too! He was very helpful and gave me some meds and told me what to do...In America, it would have been immediate surgery, but here they think that sometimes that stuff isn't necessary. In this case, however, I agree with America.
I had my mom call my orthopedist and ask him if I needed to have it done immediately or if it could wait until I got home this summer. He said it could wait, just to be careful.
A few days later I went to Beijing and climbed the Great Wall, with crutches of course. That trip (the topic of my next blog) had already been planned, and I really didn't want to miss it, so I went anyway. I stayed on crutches for about 2 weeks, and am now getting around with a very small limp and little to no pain. Don't get me wrong, I won't be playing any baseball or running anywhere quite yet, but I am getting around pretty well now.
Needless to say this has been a rough month, but I am looking forward to finishing up my time here and enjoying every last minute of it!
Love from China!
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