A New Soccer Player in the House!

Before we introduce the latest new soccer player in the house, I'd like to announce that Marika got her first goal of the season a couple of Saturdays ago - she dribbled up the left sideline and then shot it in. I was so proud! I forgot to get a picture of her after the game, so she agreed to pose with Snowball... :)

And there he is - yup, that figure in black in the goal - that's DaddyDude! We joined a coed soccer league a couple of weeks ago (men over 40, women over 30). We got slaughtered our first game but that's where DaddyDude learned that his best position is probably goalie - the stretching and diving necessary to play third base is not that different from stopping balls in the goal! He looks AWESOME and hasn't gotten hurt yet! I'm so proud of him, too!!!

As for me... I got shoved (by a guy, of course) during last week's game. As I valiantly tried to stay on my feet (since bouncing on the ground makes my knee swell up), I heard and felt my right knee go *POP!* That, by the way, is never a good sign - in fact, it's pretty indicative that you've done something very bad to one of your ligaments, namely the ACL. I had to limp off the field, something I've never done before. I tried to come back on after a few minutes, but was completely unable to cut or twist and had to have a teammate help me off the field.

Naturally, I was terrified - after my last knee injury, I iced it as soon as we got back home and wrapped it up. Twisting my leg hurt like crazy but other than that, it wasn't too bad. I went to see our sports medicine doctor today and she said she thought my ACL was torn, but she couldn't tell how badly because my knee was so swollen (okay, I'd like to point out that my knee looks like it has after it got drained - she kept saying how beat up my knee looked but really, it looks the same!). I might try to get an MRI, though there are some concerns that insurance won't cover it. The doctor said that basically, since the orthopedist we wanted (he's supposed to be fabulous) wouldn't operate unless the ACL was completely gone so I might as well just keep playing until my ACL is obliterated. She said I could start running if I wanted and not to worry about a muscle pull that's bothering me - because apparently, it just doesn't matter anymore. I've resigned myself to the fact that once I rip out my ACL, I'm out of soccer for one full year. Yup, folks, that's how long it takes the average person to recover and rehab. Oh, and the doctor kept saying how she wanted to minimize the amount of arthritis that I was going to be suffering from later. YOWSERS!!!

Running went fine... a little painful but afterwards, I felt much better (managed 6 miles!). The reason I'm so concerned about this injury is because I have an indoor soccer tournament around Thanksgiving (the same team that's going to Vegas together again next April). I texted the captain today to give her the option of replacing me but she said she was willing to wait and see how I was feeling. My plan is to keep running but avoid playing soccer until then, giving my knee a full 3.5 weeks to recover. I'm hoping my ACL is only mildly torn and will repair itself by then. Keep your fingers crossed for me, please!