These were the very pins used to set my broken femur (yes, I kept them).

 November I heard them again for the sixth time, for the same knee! 

On December 22nd, 2009 I had my sixth operation on my right knee. All but one has been a result of a broken femur playing soccer when I was 14. 

This will be a 6 part post detailing each of my six knee operations as best as I can remember them. Considering the fact that I’m still relatively young I expect this won’t be my last knee operation, unfortunately. We’ll just worry about these for now.

Surgery #1: The Great Break

I started playing soccer at the age of five. That was my sport. I loved it and I excelled at it. My soccer playing days ended on November 1st, 1986 a little after 11:00am. 

That morning I had a soccer game as I did every Saturday during the soccer season. During this fateful soccer game I collided with the goalie, which given how aggressive I was when I played soccer, was nothing unusual. However, this was not my lucky day.

After the collision I lied there on the grass feeling immense pain. I looked down at my legs and saw that the bone was nearly protruding though the skin of my outer thigh on my right leg. It wasn’t a compound fracture, but close to it. Instantly, I went into shock. Not knowing what I was doing I got up to walk towards the side lines but fell once I tried to put weight on that leg. I don’t recomend trying to walk on a fully broken femur, it just doesn’t work. In fact, I probably did more damage by doing that. So I fell back to the ground on my stomach and remember screaming for my dad, who happened to be the coach. He didn’t know the severity of the situation so he was on the side line yelling for me to get up and keep playing, which I would have done had it been a collision on any other day.

It didn’t take long before I had a crowd surrounding me. It took 45 agonizing minutes before I was carried off because the ambulance couldn’t figure out how to get the vehicle back to the soccer field.

I was taken to the hospital and was quickly taken back to the operating room where they used two “pins” (I’d call them nails with no head) to set my fractured femur.

The break occurred along the growth plate (physis). Since I was still growing at the tender age of 14 it would turn out to be the worst place it could have possibly fractured (why in Part 3) and the reason for four of my next five operations.

So I’d be interested in hearing your injury stories too. Please share!

Part 2: Coming Soon! 
Part 3: Coming Soon!
Part 4: Coming Soon!
Part 5: Coming Soon!
Part 6: Coming Soon!