Bucchigiri?! - Ep 06

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After practically two years and two months away from football due to injuries, Erika is back on the field!

The 36-year-old player who has played for several clubs, such as PSG and who currently plays for Corinthians Feminino, made her return to the pitch this past Thursday (March 21).

She suffered two serious knee injuries in the space of three years, which made her consider retirement. After the game, the defender gave a special interview to the Brazilian club's media.

"It's simple to play football for us. It's simple to have an injury and then come back , but in reality, it's not. It's much more than that, you know?

Today I'm 36 years old, it's been two years since I suffered the injury and had surgery. Today I return to the pitch with all the support of the girls, of the technical committee, and the coach (Lucas) who gave me this opportunity to enter the today's game. And, man, how difficult. How difficult it is to get on the field again and touch the ball, watch and play the game because I don't have the same vision of the game that I had years ago, simple is scary, It's a huge challenge for me because I don't know if I will feel pain in my knee, I don't know how I am".

Furthermore, Erika said that her return was and still is a very emotional moment for her because of what it means and all the support she received from the fans throughout this recovery process.

Honestly, her return is one of the most beautiful and exciting things I have ever witnessed in women's football, as well as the return of other players such as Alexia Putellas, Leah Williamson, Viv, and all the others who face these injuries that could end with a player's career and emerge victorious from it.

Whump Prompt #1113

Anon asked:

Do you have any hurt/comfort prompts about chronic pain? My character has chronic pain from old spine and knee injuries and I want him to be taken care of for once instead of having to endure it alone (like me lol).

Sorry to hear you’re suffering Anon! Here are some comfort-based prompts for you. I hope these help: 

When the pain gets so bad, and the caretaker hasn’t seen A in a while, they’ll take a drink and some food to them, as well as a fresh hot water bottle or two to their room. A has been in bed all day, so is thankful for the snack and heat source - their electric blanket just isn’t cutting it. 

Maybe they hate using their mobility aids, but the caretakers find a way to make it more bearable. They glare at anyone who stares at A, they ‘pimp out’ the aid to make it more appealing, if they use a cane they could wrap the handle in something soft to stop it causing blisters (your caretakers always have plasters on hand for this occasion, though).

After too many occasions of A causing themselves more injury/agony by forcing themselves out of bed/a chair/off the ground, the caretakers insist on A texting them if they need help. A is at first reluctant to do this... but one day its so bad all they can text is ‘help’, and the caretakers come running without question. When they’re up, all A can do is apologise in their embarrassment. The caretakers literally don’t care; they’d rather take five minutes helping A up instead of forcing them to endure it themselves. They’re just worried that one day A wont have anyone nearby. 

Maybe they help monitor how much pain medication A is taking (they’re prone to taking too much when it’s bad), because all those tablets can’t be doing A’s liver any good. 

They help with alternative pain management: baths, hot water bottles, an electric blanket, recreational smoking, small exercises etc. 

For A, the summer is unbearable, all the caretakers can do is help massage the painful areas, yet it also inflicts pain on the whumpee. 

A is also miserable when they’re sick - they cannot get comfortable and every cough sends spikes of agony through their spine. 

The caretakers make sure A doesn’t spend too long on their feet (missions/outings etc are planned accordingly.)

If missions/outings do go on for longer than expected, then it’s unlikely anyone will see A for at least a couple of days as they recover. 

Speaking of which... what happens if A is faced with a scenario like the one that caused them their injuries?

Your caretakers comfort A whenever they feel like a burden. They love to remind them that they are more than their body: while it may betray them, the fact that A has survived their injuries is a huge feat of strength. 

And one for the giggles: A is dragged begrudgingly to an acupuncture session to see if it helps. (They were even more begrudging to admit that it did.)

The green of the wall makes me feel like a strawberry lol

The knee brace I have to help my knee be stable and support after the injury started to cause some nerve pain…and now I have a bruise in that exact spot! That’s not even the area where I hurt my knee is! THIS IS THE OTHER SIDE! 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

On my knees absolutely crying and begging for more fics about 2012 leos knee injury or his vocal cord damage. Ya'll the angst potential is immense. It's boiling over It's in the floor I'm slipping in it wheres the wet floor sign I'm suing.

I fucked up my right knee again and the pain hasn't been this bad in so many years. I yearn for that hot cocoa with chantilly my mum would sometimes make to help distract me from the pain.

well this post got around 😳 people on Reddit really enjoyed my brothers concave destroyed kneecap. good few comments wishing they didn't unblur it, many saying they didn't even know that could happen (same), some good jokes about a knee shot glass or cereal bowl

if you wanna see it's under the cut! it's not "gory" in the sense there's no blood or open wound, but a kneecap that is concave. so, be aware.

he slipped coming down the stairs, pretty sure he landed kneecap first on the edge of a step 😬 had to have his patella put back together with wire

so, dislocated my knee for the tenth time last night, and this time i was filled with such instant “im not letting this get worse AGAIN” anger that the second after i fell, my hand just palmed my knee back into place. Like fucking instinctual. I felt like a fucking viking.

then i called my roommate over and i sat up too quick and the pain made me faint so... I can only be cool when no one is watching. Good to know.

cause of injury? flirting.

NGL, my bad knee aches after seeing will borgen take a 99mph shot to the knee, I need news about him (to satisfy my ptsd among reasons) please.

Post-Op Day 4

Today has been exceedingly educational. Aka, when everyone says "don't stop taking your meds" you should probably listen:

You might need them for longer than you think.

I tried to taper off the percocet - I did fine with 12 hours between doses, so buoyed by my previous success and relative lack of pain, I tried to hold out for 24 hours.

That turns out to have been a mistake.

I have writer brain, so I'm filing this all away for future reference. But I understand now that people react very differently to pain. I think I always sort of knew that, just like I know sometimes I feel sick because I have a bad headache, and not because my stomach is upset.

I saw a lot of posts about people crying, or screaming, when they didn't keep up with their post-op meds (or waited until the nerve block wore off to take them.)

I didn't see anything about throwing up, so I'm going to add my experience to the hat which is to say:

Pain makes me nauseous. I felt sick to my stomach before I even realized I was in pain. When I did, it was that burning again - only worse. I've never been tazed, but I'm imagining it feels something like this, on your whole leg.

Imagine someone replacing your leg with a hot fire poker.

The good news is, percocet kicks in pretty quick. So after white knuckling it for about 30 minutes, hoping it would just pass, I gave up and went for the meds.

I will say, my diversion tactics seem to work to a certain extent - pain is noise and if I give my brain enough other noise to focus on, it seems to help.

Some of it is literal noise - apologies to my eardrums, but it's for a worthy cause. And the rest is sensory - I refilled my water bottle with cold water and put it against the side of my face. I'm not saying I could have functioned in that state, but it was slightly more bearable (and I managed not to puke while waiting for the meds to do their thing.)

Tomorrow we're going to stick to the 12 hour schedule, but on half doses. Just to be on the safe side.

I took my notes and that's not an experience I care to relive.

On a bright note, I finally started Horizon: Forbidden West today. I set it to Ultra Hard to make it last as long as possible - so far so good, since I haven't managed to beat the tutorial boss.

It'a good to have goals.

And skills - I've gotten really good at using my non-op leg to move my bad leg around. I had a lot of practice since I injured it mountainside, then had three days before leaving, then on and off the plane and back to the airport again, and all the time after when my quads weren't firing.

Nurse Hottie was shocked post-op by how well I could maneuver without help. I didn't consider it much, but now I'm remembering a friend explaining how she had to hold her son's leg when he went to the bathroom or showered, and how it was awful for both of them because sometimes she would drop it on accident.

Which is a lot of words to say that no one can be as careful with your knee as you are, and I've been really lucky because I've been managing without a designated Leg Lifter.

Which is probably why I was so startled today when I finally dropped my leg for the first time. I've been elevating on an wheeled ottoman, with stuff behind it so I can't accidentally slide it away. The problem is that then it's in the way when I want to get up, and I can only push it so far, so I need someone to slide it the rest of the way.

Well. They did that thing, but boy was I ever not ready. I'm not sure who was more surprised when my leg came crashing down. It hurt (surprise surprise), but I'm pretty sure it's going to take more than a little unexpected gravity to undo my surgeon's fine handy work.

My lesson here is to put up warning signs, by which I mean micromanage and advocate loudly for your needs to whoever is helping you.

It's one thing to hurt yourself, and another for someone who has no idea what hurts where to accidentally do it.

Knee issues--help?

Is anyone familiar with knee problems??? My left knee puffed up abruptly today and feels really tight/weird. It hurts too. Last year it did this same thing; I went to the doctor, got an x-ray, an injection, and a prescription for Physical Therapy. None of it did much. The x-ray showed mild osteoarthritis, and the injection got rid of the pain for about 3 whole days. The PT was a bit of a non-starter because I had to cancel my appointments for financial and schedule reasons, and a lot of the assigned exercises were really difficult for me to do because of the positions they required (I can’t lie on my back or right side easily and most of them required one or the other). Admittedly if I’d found a way to modify the exercises or pay for the PT I might have had more success but that didn’t happen and here we are.  I’m supposed to go on a 7-mile hike with my family in 2 days. I’ve been looking forward to it for months. I’m absolutely devastated that I might have to back out. Does anyone with knee issues know what this might be or what I should do for it?? It’s swollen and tight and it hurts when I put weight on it that isn’t straight up and down weight (so I can stand and walk mostly fine, but I can’t pivot or flex the knee too much with weight on it or it’s excruciating).  Thank you for any advice/recommendations!

Point Break (1991)

Part 2

That point in healing an injury where a brace is worse for it hurts my feeling so much cuz wait no why are you breaking up with me?