[Redliner]

I blew up me knee skiing in January 2020. Went to the hospital, which referred me to the AKIC, which assessed me with a full ACL tear and referred me to a surgeon. The surgeon agreed with the diagnosis but insisted on an MRI before doing anything. I didn't want to wait 10 months so I paid the $900 and went to Mayfair to have one done privately. The MRI revealed that the ACL was damaged but not completely torn, which resulted in the surgeon changing his mind and not wanting to operate. The argument was that he didn't want to cut out healthy tissue to do a graft, because he stated that he "might only be able to give me a knee that's as strong as what I already have". Instead he wrote me a prescription for a custom knee brace and told me to continue with physio.

A year and a half later I don't really notice it much doing day-to-day things, but I still wear the brace to go skiing or play tennis or anything high impact. In those situations I can definitely tell that it's not "normal" but at least I can do the activities. The downside is that I feel like my knee is essentially a ticking time bomb - at some point I'm sure it will let go entirely but I have no way of knowing when that might happen. I kind of wish the surgeon had just done the graft instead, but I guess that would bring with it a whole slate of other potential problems.