Brave Enough To Be Bliss

Chapter 5 — Receiving Care and Feeling Loved

“Asking for help is an act of service. Don't deny the people who love you the honor of being there to support you.” Simon Sinek

The quote above is an example of one I saw at just the right time for it to have a profound impact on my life.

On September 4, 2021, I injured my knee. It d idn’t seem like a big deal. At work I had been coordinating a move of one of our offices to a different building, so on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, I was trying to get the final things packed up. I picked up a box from the floor, and turned, and it felt like my knee turned but my foot remained straight ahead. Sort of like the bottom of my shoe got caught on the carpet. I thought it would get better in a few days , but it didn’ t. I was very annoyed because I couldn’t run , which had always been my main form of exercise. I had an MRI and it was thought my medial meniscus was torn. I contacted an orthopedic surgeon who was close by, but it was October before I could get in and after waiting all that time, he refused to do anything because he saw cartilage damage and said I just couldn’t run anymore. I was mad, sad, and cried off and on for a few weeks trying to accept it. But then I decided to ask my former husband who he would recommend for a second opinion, since he had worked in orthopedic surgical sales and knew many of the surgeons in Kansas City. I was able to get into the surgeon he recommended in November. Hope was regained after that appointment and an arthroscopic surgery scheduled on December 14. Kylee took me to the surgery and the surgeon found my meniscus was actually intact, clipped off the injured pieces of cartilage, and saw the rest of my knee was in great shape. He got the measurements needed for two transplants to replace the cartilage. I am so very grateful for the donor’s bone/tissue and am happy that I had the chance electronically to thank the donor’s family. I had thought that was only an option for organ donation, so it was a nice surprise. I was already registered to be a donor myself, but now I’m even more glad I am as I hadn’t even thought of all the ways tissue donation can help people. I so admire all those who have made the choice to donate. As hard as it can be for families to do, it is another example of making good come to others even in the worst of circumstances. (For information on organ donation, see the link under Resources. ) The surgeon explained at my initial post-op appointment that typically these types of transplants are performed on athletes or active people under 40, but if he was going to do a repair on someone my age, I was a perfect candidate. I only took that as a compliment, but it reminded me that a few years ago I would have walked away feeling like he called me “ old ” and focused on that. But not anymore; I wasn’t looking for reasons to make myself miserable. Instead, I saw it as having a chance to run again. I wasn’t afraid of hard work, so even his caution about how long and hard the recovery would be didn’t scare me one bit. It would all be worth it to me as I plan to be active as long as I can possibly can. I had physical therapy twice a week to recover from the first surgery and then to build strength in preparation for the repair surgery and long recovery that was ahead of me. It all felt really good to me until the physical therapists started talking about not being able to drive, training me to use a walker (OK , the walker part sort of made me feel old, I’ll admit) and crutches, asking me who was going to help me, etc. That’s when I started thinking about my home and wondering how I would even be able to manage. I lived in a row home with three levels, 8 steps then a small landing requiring a turn and then 8 more steps in between each level, and with no one level having access to everything I would need to get by for the eight weeks following surgery. And that’s when I saw the Simon Sinek quote above , “Asking for help is an act of service. Don't deny the people who love you the honor of being there to support you.” I really thought about that when I read it. It made me think about how much I enjoy helping people and how it feels when they don’t allow me to help them. Then it made me think about all the times I have declined help even as recently as the December surgery. Kylee was

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