Conditions + Treatments
Osteochondritis Dissecans
As I began my junior year (Fall of 2015) of swimming at Birmingham Southern College, I was excited for what the season would bring. In February of the previous year, the BSC girls swim team had been edged out of first place by only 6.5 points at our conference championship meet, and I was more motivated than ever to win the 2015-16 championship.
At the start of the season, in September, we jumped straight into workouts, swimming every afternoon and going to weights 3 times a week in the morning. A few weeks into these workouts I was at weights and was doing box jumps, along with other various leg exercises. As I jumped off the box jump into a squat, I noticed that my knee suddenly didn't feel quite right, and the next day it started to swell.
I ignored the fact that it bothered me, I figured it had to be something minor. This however was not the case, and a few nights later I twisted my knee and felt a pop. After this my knee locked up, and I could hardly bend it or put weight on it. I decided to get it looked at by the trainer, who later sent me to Andrews Sports Medicine to get it evaluated. Dr. Ortega first evaluated my knee and suggested I get an MRI, which is exactly what I did. About 1 week later, I was told that I had torn the cartilage on the outside of my knee on my femoral condyle, and that is what was locking up my joint. They suggested that I have surgery to remove it.
I then met with Dr. McGough to get evaluated for surgery, seeing that this was my best option. I figured I could have surgery to remove the cartilage and be back in the pool in only a couple of weeks.
My surgery was then scheduled for the beginning of October. As I went in, Dr. McGough realized that the area the cartilage had torn off from was more damaged than he thought, meaning that he needed to micro fracture the bone in order for the cartilage to regrow in that spot. This pushed getting back in the pool from 3 weeks to 8 weeks.
After I went back to school I began doing rehab 4 days a week with our trainer, who worked with me tremendously with helping me strengthen my leg again. Still motivated to get back into the pool and swim at conference in February, I worked as hard as I could. Finally, 8 weeks later, I got cleared to swim 1.5 weeks before our mid-season rest meet at the beginning of December.
I then trained as hard as I could in the pool, and attended our team training trip in Naples, Florida over Christmas break enduring 2-3 practices a day. I was encouraged by my teammates and how hard they were working for this meet, and I knew I had to do it not only for myself, but for them. January brought brutal training as well, swimming 6 days a week, 4 of which included double practices.
As the conference meet approached, I was so excited and ready to see what I was capable of doing. Before conference, we always taper, allowing our muscles to rebuild themselves back up stronger than they were before. This meet is my favorite weekend of the year, consisting of 4 fast days of swimming. We started the meet out strong, winning both relays on the first night, and taking the lead by 10 points. The next few days were full of ups and downs. I swam one event each day and ended up swimming close to my personal best times. I also finished 5th in one of my races. My teammates and I swam our hearts out the entire weekend. The meet came down to the very last relay, but unfortunately we were edged out of 1st again by only 3 points this year.
Although we didn't come home with a win on the girl's side, we went out with a bang, and I couldn't be more proud. I was lucky to even get the chance to swim at this meet, and I have to give a huge thanks to Dr. Ortega and Dr. McGough for getting me back on my feet (and into the pool) so quickly! As this season ends, I am thrilled to see what my senior year of swimming for BSC brings. Forward Ever, and Go Panthers!!!
