Partially good news

I'm back from the doctor, where I waited just under two hours for a five-minute visit. Believe it or not, this is a distinct improvement, as I have previously waited as many as five hours for a five-minute visit.

The good news is that he *thinks* that the ACL is intact, and that this is just a partial tear (aka a sprain). This is not conclusive, because I couldn't really relax it enough for him to manipulate it all the way due to swelling and pain, so it's still possible that it could be completely torn. Even if it's only partially torn, there is no way of knowing how much of the ligament is left without an MRI, or how well the joint will function. It was already partially torn from my original skiing injury back in '94, so there may not be enough left to keep my knee stable.

There's a chance I could still be looking at more surgery down the line, but my doctor does think that it's likely to improve considerably over the next week or so. I'll go back for a follow-up in four weeks if it's still not 100%, but for now, we're thinking it might turn out to be OK. I am very, very relieved, because ACL reconstruction is no joke. I'm likely to find out one of these days, because the ligament will go sooner or later if I keep doing bad things to it, but it doesn't appear that that day is today.