I’m Jolene Pappas (formerly Miller). I’m 26 and live in Cincinnati, OH. I teach high school biology at Batavia High School and taekwondo classes at Cincinnati Taekwondo Center. My reason for starting this thing is because I’m having ACL surgery in a few weeks. I figure if I write down what I’m doing, it’ll keep me honest and working hard. The thought that someone might be reading it and checking up on me will be added motivation (as if being able to do all my normal activities isn’t motivation enough). If you read this, leave a comment. Even if you never read it again, if I think someone is reading it might help. Disclaimer: I’m not guaranteeing anything in regards to the quality of spelling or grammar (particularly spelling).

I thought that I had sprained my knee after an incident at a taekwondo tournament about a month ago. I was sparing, got caught off balance, turned, but my knee didn’t turn with me (for the record, I was winning the match at the time of the injury). I ended up getting it checked out at the emergency room that evening (long story as to how I ended up there…it wasn’t because of my knee, but as long as I was there…) and they said it seemed to be a sprain but because of all the swelling I was advised to get it checked out after the swelling went down. I went and saw the trainer at the high school after track practice (I coach) a week and a half later. She said all the ligaments seemed fine, but that there was still some swelling. I scheduled an appointment with an orthopedist for during spring break. By this time my knee was feeling pretty good and I was going to start upping my activity level, but I wanted to get it checked out first to make sure I wasn’t going to do any permanent damage.

He came to the conclusion that I had torn my ACL. If you’re not familiar with the anatomy of the knee, the ACL and PCL, which hold the thigh bone to the shin, do not have a blood supply, so they don’t heal on their own. Therefore, surgery is necessary for anyone who plans to continue with athletics.

My surgery is scheduled for May 8. I’ll have to take some time off work and the timing couldn’t really be much worse, but I want to get this over with. I will miss the league track meet, but track coaches don’t really have to do that much at the meets. I pretty much just make sure everyone gets to their events on time. All the decisions and preparation take place in advance, and I’ll have that covered. Also, we don’t have a very big track team, so Coach Moorehead said he can handle everyone on his own. The bigger problem is that this is the week before the AP Biology test. I’m going to try to go in just for AP on Thursday and Friday to make sure the AP kids are ready to go. I’m also going to try to arrange to have another one of the biology teachers work with them Tuesday and maybe Wednesday. Fortunately, they’re a fairly self-motivated group and they will help each other if I’m not there. Also, I plan to have them pretty much ready by the week before, since there are a number of other things going on the week of the 7th that will be major distractions (like other AP tests and prom).

The good news is that since I’m a teacher, I have the summer off. With all the free time, I won’t have any excuses not to be the model physical therapy patient. Only 7 more weeks of school!