The Injury

Well I received the worst basketball injury I have had since I began playing basketball at the young age of 0.

It happened back on Feb 4th when I was playing a game called "21" with a few guys who were on the Mountainview team.   So here is the story... a certain name has been changed to protect the young man who injured me, for fear of my mother hopping aboard a plane and letting him have it for hurting her baby boy!

Back to the story...(the short version)
At one point in the game I got a rebound and went back up for a jump shot and General Grievous (not his real name) tried to block my shot.  Well... being the exceptional player I am and... not to mention humble, I made the shot.  But General Grievous had the last laugh.  As I was coming down from my jump shot my foot came down on top of his and I rolled my ankle... at least that's all I thought I did in that moment.  The only thought in my mind was "oh man, I just rolled my ankle pretty bad, i need to get off the court."  So I quickly got up and hobbled off the court to a bench on the side.

By the time I got to the bench and got my foot up to look at it, it was the size of a softball... maybe even a bit bigger than a softball!  There were quite a few people around, so someone ran and got some ice and someone else got some Tylenol for me because it was a little painful.  The team leader from our organization happened to be there and he immediately took me to the hospital for x-rays in the town we live in. We picked Jenn up on the way there.

At the hospital the doctor looked at the x-rays and thought my ankle was dislocated... I didn't think so.  So we told him to not try to set it because we were going to make a trip to Semarang which is a bigger city the next day for a second opinion.  The next day I had an MRI in Semarang and the doctor said I had a torn ligament but because of the swelling he couldn't tell how bad.  He ended up putting a cast on my ankle and telling me not to use it for about 8 weeks.

After a few weeks one of our teammates, who is a Physical Therapist, came over to see how my ankle was doing.  She expressed her concern over the way it looked because it was still the size of a softball, and the color and range of motion showed no improvement, and she was concerned about the course of action the doctor was taking.  So we decided to go to Singapore and get someone there to look at it.  We made our appointments and got our plane tickets, visas, and within days we were off to Singapore.

                                       After the return from Singapore.  The swelling had gone down                                                    quite a bit, but the circulation still wasn't great.

Dr. Raj, who is the doctor in Singapore, was glad that we came and after hearing what he said,we were glad we went.  He informed us that I indeed had a torn ligament in my ankle but not only did I have one... I had two torn ligaments!  He also said that the way the doctor in Semarang had cast my ankle made it worse, it had caused my Achilles tendon to tighten in a way that reduced my range of motion in my ankle to about 70% of what it was.  He also said that if I had left that cast on for the full 8 weeks as the doctor had suggested I may have lost as much as 50% or more of the range of motion in my foot making it almost impossible to walk normally again.  The bad news was that without surgery to repair my ligaments I would never be able to hike, run, play basketball, or play ultimate frisbee ever again! If you know me at at all, you know this is a big part of life for me.

So we go back to see Dr. Raj on June 4th for the surgery.  I need to play ultimate frisbee again at least some point in my life!

Since that first trip to Singapore my foot has gotten much better.  I can now walk without crutches and if I am walking around the house I don't even have to wear a brace.  I have also had a few visitors that have stopped by to check up on me and see how I was doing.

                                            A "few" ladies from the village stopped by and brought fruit.                                            There are just as many ladies on the other half of the room!

Pak Min a neighbor and friend stopped by to check on me and tell me stories
of his own sports injuries. He was very concerned & wants Greg to be sure to get the surgery. 

He also wanted to compare his height to the height of my crutches!

Please continue to pray for us as we make preparations to go back to Singapore for my surgery and come June 4th that my surgery goes well.   We put another post on the blog later updating you on how the surgery goes.