Rehabilitation after ACL& Meniscus Surgery

For those of you who know me well, I have been synonymous with an injured leg; limping around here and there. The origin of this injury happened 3 years prior, while I was playing volleyball; my favorite sport, when I was back in Highschool. When the injury first happened, I tried not to make a big deal out of it. I did not want to put any more financial stress on my single mother who was already managing her best to take care of my 4 younger sisters. Additionally, I was told it is probably a ligament stretch instead of a tear. So then, I told myself to suck it up, and convinced myself that this was just another injury that would heal if given some time and attention.

This injury, however, was not enough to stop my love for volleyball, physical activities, and my competitiveness spirit. So then, I managed these past 3 years, wrapping my knee with countless bandages to avoid too much popping, and wearing any and all kinds of knee braces as physical support when I participated in activities. Unfortunately, this caused my knee to get worse progressively after each incident, until recently where I could not fully extend my leg anymore.

I consulted with a doctor in Thailand and he suggested that I do an MRI to find conclusive evidence of the seriousness of my injury as he strongly felt that I needed surgery. As these procedures were way above the coverage of the school’s medical insurance, I felt I had no choice but to forgo one semester of school and head back to Moscow to deal with this injury, where the costs would be much cheaper. As soon as I got back, I did an MRI and what it revealed was that the injury is much more serious than I ever imagined. I had completely torn my AC; one of the worst sport injuries forcing even professional athletes to retire early.. To make matters worse, my medial meniscus had also been undertaking more stress than it could handle and was tearing in multiple places (1 week away from being useless, as my surgeon put it).

The surgery was going to be costly, but my mother went out of her way to borrow as much money as she could while my biological father also provided for half the cost of surgery. I underwent surgery on the 22nd of November thinking that the worst was going to be behind me. This, however, would not be the case for me, and further complications developed during my recovery period (as a result of not getting immediate surgery after first injury and the lack of attention from my first physical therapist). Now I switched my Physical Therapists to the costly one that my surgeon suggested to properly activate my patella and avoid another costly surgery of scar tissue removal (each PT session costing approximately $100, thrice a week)

Currently, I am 3-month post operation but am far behind the timeline of recommended recovery. While other patients would have managed to start running, I am still stuck learning how to walk properly through pain. Unfortunately, I am running close to empty on any kinds of funds for any more physical therapy; the only thing that is helping me increase my range of motion ( it is about 80 at the moment instead of 120). If my range of motion were to remain at the same level, then it would mean that I will have to undergo additional surgery.

So here I am, asking for any kind of help during this really difficult time that me and my family are going through. I am still expected to have a year of recovery ahead, but I do not see myself having nowhere enough funds to support this. My mother has already done as much as she could, considering she has the tough responsibility of looking after my 4 younger sisters.

I have never done this before and asking for help especially financially has been really tough for me to do.

Thank you for everyone who has been there for me in any way, your kindness and love has kept me going. <3