About four years ago, I was told something that I thought would be the end of my dance/color guard career. Let me take a step back. I have been dancing and moving since I was little. One day I was walking through this field of grass, getting mosquito and other bug bites just like any summer night. The next day I had probably about 20 bug bites, but one super big one on my knee. After a couple of weeks, the one big bug bite on my knee was still the same size and the same redness as before. I decided to take it to the doctor. Without hesitation, my doctor wanted an x-ray and MRI. I spent the next month back and forth at the hospital.
Back at the doctors, I was told to go to a knee specialist, still not knowing what was wrong with me. After waiting a couple of months to see the recommended knee specialist, I finally found out what was wrong with me. I had dislocated my knee cap and torn my patella ligament-- torn the ligament that held my knee cap in place. I was told I had two choices. The first, get surgery. The second, wait to see if it will repair its self. I chose the second option.
I figured if the pain wasn't bothering me, why would I get the surgery. I didn't let this "injury" set me back. I was fitted for a huge knee brace that limited a lot of my mobility. I decided to continue dancing and doing color guard. Which was probably the first mistake. As I continued, the pain got worse, swelling started to become a daily occurrence. There were a couple times my knee cap even moved out of place.
I started physical therapy to try and make the healing process go faster. But the lump never went away, it actually got bigger. I pushed through every little bit of pain. Never once did I have the thought to stop. A year after my first visit to the knee specialist, I had to go back for a check up. There was no good news. The injury was still there, with no improvement from the physical therapy. I stopped physical therapy and continued wearing my brace every day.
After about two years of wearing the knee brace-- my senior year, I gave up on the brace. If the ligament was going to repair itself, I didn't need to wear a giant brace to do so. I kept doing stretches and exercises to keep everything from tightening up. I went the chiropractor to help with the pain. There I found out my leg with the bad knee was actually a bit shorter than my good leg. After it was straightened out, I stopped going to the chiropractor. I also stopped dancing and color guard.
Stopping this was the hardest decision of my life. I figured I need to take a couple years off and heal my knee. But not even a year after stopping, I am back to the stage. I couldn't keep away. I decided I wasn't going to let my injury define me.
An injury was not going to set me back. I know I was going to have some pain, and trust me I have been feeling it a lot. My injury is not going to stop me from doing what I love. I have also learned that I can do whatever I set my mind to just from this knee injury. I won't let anyone or anything stop me from doing what I want to do. If my own body tries to stop me from doing something and I still do it, why should I let anyone else stop me. You can overcome anything you want. And I want to overcome this knee injury and I believe I will. And I probably won't get surgery, I will overcome this injury one day.
