I'm not 22 anymore...

I'm starting to realize I'm not as young as I use to be. I grew up playing sports, hiking, camping, doing what the boys could do. I'm starting to feel it a little more every day. My chiropractor laughs at me as he has to adjust my neck, back, lower back, knees, and ankles every visit. (Kyle will be teaching me stretches and techniques so I won't have to go see him as much.) Well last Tuesday I had my first flag football game. It was about 5 minutes in and I ran to grab someone's flag. I planted my foot and must have turned my knee because I had immediate pain shooting through my knee. Now being me I of course just "walked it off" and kept playing. Probably not the smartest idea, but I wasn't going to show anyone I was hurt. I quickly called my Dad afterwards and I'll admit, cried a little. He said that it didn't sound good so maybe I should just run to the instant care and get it checked out. I hate doctors and hospitals and everything that has to do with that. I avoid it as much as possible. The doctor just kind of looked at me like really? your knee hurts...poor baby. She barely tested it at all and sent me to x-rays. My x-rays were fine (I knew I hadn't broken a bone) and I was sent on my way with a brace that made it hurt worse. I did my best to ice and elevate, stay off of it, and relax, but I'm not really good at most of those things. I tried playing volleyball that Thursday. I basically just set for everyone. I tried again on Saturday with a little more success and a lot more pain afterwards. I finally called the sports medicine doctor on Monday to have him take a look at it. I sent Kyle the picture of my knee and his response was "NO knee should ever look like that!" The sports medicine doctor was awesome. He was super nice and really knew what he was doing seeing how that is his specialty. He quickly realized I just had way too much fluid in my knee and it needed to be drained. NASTY!!!!! I do pretty well with needles, shots, pain, etc. but sick yellow fluid coming out of my knee was a little more than I could handle. He still wasn't sure what was wrong because it could be a few things, but he gave me some pain medicine and said that if it's not better by Monday to call and he will schedule an MRI. I still had a lot of discomfort yesterday, but slept well and it feels a little better this morning. I have more movement in my knee, but still some pain. I'd really like to get back to normal activities sooner than later so I'm praying for a tiny miracle!

Here is my knee on Tuesday night: