The Unreasonable Man and His Trick Knee

I've had five knee surgeries in three different hospitals in two states. I've torn every ligament I have, even the ones I had never heard of. I've also broken my kneecap and ripped cartilage, on top of the torn ligaments. I've blown out my knee playing soccer, basketball, lacrosse, volleyball, and even croquet (yes, croquet).

My knee has more parts than it originally came with. I've got a dead man's ligament in there and a surgical staple keeping my MCL attached to the bone. You can feel it if you run your hand on the inside of my knee. You could also put your hand on top of my kneecap and feel my ligaments slide over when I simply bend my knee.

I walk with a permanent limp. It took months of physical therapy to even get to that point, so I'm pretty happy with the limp. At least I can still run. It also doesn't help that one of my legs is longer than the other, or that in my good leg I've had surgery on my foot and would later tear ligaments in my foot, which my surgeon decided wasn't worth fixing. I don't remember the last time my knee didn't hurt. In fact, I don't know what I would do if it did work right. Probably go out and injure it.

A reasonable person would take this as a hint. That perhaps organized sports aren't my cup of tea and that I should take things easy or else I'm going to end up in a wheelchair. No one has ever accused me of being reasonable. When turning around first base tonight, I felt something pop in my knee. I stumbled into second base and then waited for someone to come and carry me off the field. More than anything, I'm just pissed off, particularly since I'm out of frozen peas. And I'm doing some online research on local wheelchair basketball leagues. Because I'm not going to let an inability to walk stop me from playing.

I'm a complete moron.