Archive for March, 2009

I’m less than a week away from surgery. I chose a patellar tendon autograft, which means they’ll slice and dice at my knee in order to save it. Ouch.

One thing that bothers me about this whole process is that every different facility or doctor involved in the surgery/diagnosis/etc. must ask the same questions concerning my health. I would have thought that some of that information would have been passed along. Questions like, “are you currently taking any medication?” or “do you take drugs or use alcohol?” I’ve filled out form after form and questionnaire after questionnaire with these same questions. Why isn’t this information passed on? Why? Because the system is hampered by some pretty idiotic regulations concerning information. Especially considering that every one of these doctors/facilities is involved in a surgery.

It seems to me that this information should be shared with those who are to be involved; it isn’t like I will deny the surgeon what my family doctor knows. Dumb.

On another note, I’m still experiencing a bit of pain the knee, and it seems to get a little worse over time. One day a certain movement won’t cause pain and the next day it will…and repeat. Anyway, I can’t wait to get a functional knee back, because I’m really itching for some soccer right now.

I read a rather interesting piece this morning, LET IT DIE: Rushkoff on the economy, describing the nature of the makeup of our economy as “a system set in place for the benefit of 14th Century monarchs who have long since left this earth.”

And this makes sense to me. What Ruskoff proposes might even be more libertarian and laissez-faire than simply keeping government out of business.

It is a call to return to economic transactions that make sense on the local level. Exchanging real goods and services and creating real wealth in those exchanges. I’m blown away by this and wish that it could be, but know that it will not. Not until modern civilization collapses at least.

Rushkoff states:

As painful as it might be to watch, and as irritating as it might be to those with shrinking retirement savings, the collapse of the centralized corporate economy is ultimately a good thing. It makes room for a real economy to rise up in its place. And while it may be temporarily uncomfortable for the rich, and even temporarily devastating for the poor, it may be the fastest and least violent way to dismantle a system set in place for the benefit of 14th Century monarchs who have long since left this earth.

…The current financial crisis is the best opportunity we have had in a very long time for a bloodless revolution against the faceless fascism under which we have been living, unaware, for much too long. Let us seize the day.

Indeed. I start to think, after reading this piece, that perhaps early politicians were right to oppose a central bank; the articles of confederation might have had it right.

Yeah. Day -16; I’m a little over two weeks away from my ACL surgery. “What surgery” you say? You didn’t know I was injured. Well I guess I’m going to have to correct that misconception.

Yeah, I’m hurt. In a major way. The diagnosis is a completely torn ACL, and a couple of major tears of the mensicus. I suspect the tears are a result of continuing to play over a long span of time without an ACL. In short, my diagnosis is long and grueling rehab followed later in life by early arthritis of the left knee.

Strangely enough, though, I’m one of the few who can function relatively well without an intact ACL, and I think I’ve been doing it for six years—playing soccer for many of them—which is why I never quite realized it was my ACL that was torn. I’ve had continuing problems with that knee since my initial injury, but I’ve always been able to bounce back relatively easily. I suspect that each time I injured my knee over those six years I was tearing that cartilage just a little bit more.

This last time, August of 2008, I was on a breakaway. The goalie had passed a long ball to a defender at the centerline—a mistake, because the defender had his back to me. As the ball sailed through the air, I figured I could beat this guy to the ball and he would never catch me on my way to the net. Easy goal.

I head to the net and need to cut to my right to outfox the goalie—a good one by the way—but on my way my left knee extends straight out and pop—PAIN—I roll, don’t know what happens to the ball, but action stops.

That’s it I’m done for a few months.

Usually I’d be back to some activity relatively quickly. This time, though, extensive pain lingered in my knee for about four months. I said to hell with this. I need to fix this thing now.

Well, here I am and I’m nervous about the upcoming surgery, but many people go through this and come out all right as elite athletes. I’m no elite athlete, but I’ll be all right in my rec leagues. Perhaps better than I’ve been in a long time. I just need to lose weight again to get my speed and agility back as well as help prevent re-injury.

The only question I have is: which ligament should I harvest? Patellar or hamstring?

I’m leaning patellar, simply because it is the tried and true method as well as the one least likely to develop laxity as I heal because the ends of the tendon are attached to bone and inserted that way and held in place with interference screws; the hamstring tendon is simply inserted and held in place with interference screws and because the attachment isn’t as strong initially, the harvested tendon can slip past the screws a little bit causing laxity in the new ligament.

Obviously bone to bone is ideal for healing, which is why the patellar tendon is so strong initially. This will allow me to get back to regular activity a little faster and hopefully make the joint stronger when I eventually return to soccer.

Anyway, I’ll update here on my progress as I can.

Editor,

This in response to Jim Vopat’s letter to the editor (Right-wing letter writers need to get a clue) published March 1st.

While I am not going to criticize the political views of the writer, I want to point out something important about one’s right to voice any views they wish, no matter how ridiculous or divisive it may seem—short of inciting harm to others, of course.

Mr. Vopat states, “Did these [right-wing] letter writers miss the news? Republicans lost the election and are a dwindling minority…the majority of your neighbors do not share your views. The right-wing letters The Herald-Palladium prints in such abundance are manipulative lies and meant to deceive.”

The founders, in particular James Madison, were keenly aware of the dangers of this attitude; he wrote of a tyranny of “a majority… united by a common interest or a passion [that] cannot be constrained from oppressing the minority.”

We can see oppressive rhetoric on either side of the philosophical debate concerning the government’s role in society and private life, but keep in mind that debate or ideas should not be stifled because they are a minority view or might simply be impracticable—if not outright offensive—to the sensibilities of a vast majority of people.

Our nation is great for many reasons; the most important of which is the freedom afforded to us by the first amendment to the constitution.

One is entitled to their opinion regarding even the opinion of others, but to actively seek to diminish another’s ability to express it simply because it is the opinion of “a dwindling minority” does little to progress political and social discourse.

Mike Mattner
Benton Harbor

This response has been sent but is yet to be published.

Update: This was published in the Letters to the Editor section of the Herald Palladium on March 4, 2009.