Knee Update

I'm sure many people are curious about what the doctor said this past Monday so I decided to write another post to keep people updated. I saw Dr. Brian Cole at Rush University Medical Center who is a national leader in cartilage restoration surgeries. He had x-rays taken of my knee and looked at my November 15th Swiss MRI and said that I need a Osteochondral Allograft transplant as well as a Meniscus transplant. The Osteochondral Allograft transplant will fix the "pothole" that I have in a small part of my cartilage and bone. The transplant will come from a donor and he said I needed this kind of transplant because I was starting to wear away the bone. I also need the meniscus transplant because in my original ACL injury they had to take away part of my meniscus since it was damaged. It was very interesting to hear that I'm a rare case. All of this happened because I had the combination of missing some of my meniscus which cause my knee to wear in other places and my repair cartilage cells in one spot where damaged and would not allow my remaining cartilage to stay healthy. He did say that if he were the surgeon last year that he would have done the same repair as Dr. Bane and these transplants weren't needed at that time. Sounds like I just have some bad luck!

I asked him how long the recovery time would be and he said at least eight months with six weeks in crutches. To be honest, this almost sounds worst that my ACL repair because at least I was able to walk nearly crutch free right from the beginning. I'm sure if I can get through rehab for my ACL that this won't be too bad. Then I asked him the most important question of all.... would I still be able to play again. He didn't give me a definitive answer but he said that after the surgery and rehab we would reevaluate the situation and go from there. I'm still clinging to the hope that I might someday be able to play volleyball again! Right now I am scheduled to get scoped on January 31st so he can look inside my knee and has a better idea of what he is actually dealing with. After that, based on the expected approval process for my insurance, it could be as long as three more months until my surgery. This is going to be another long road full of obstacles but at least this time I know what I'm getting myself into for my rehab. And of course I have great parents, sisters, and friends who will be with me each step of the way! Thank you again to everyone who has supported me through these crazy times. A big thank you to all the people who expressed support this past weekend at the University of Illinois volleyball games. Thanks to everyone back in Switzerland who are keeping me updated on the team and wishing me the best. I'll try to keep everyone updated with further news about my knee!

Not so great news...

These past couple of weeks have been absolutely crazy and of course it all revolves around my knee. Two weeks ago we played against Sm'Aesch Pfeffingen and lost in four. It was a very important match to win because we are both trying to separate ourselves from the bottom and be in the top five teams of the league. I had many meetings with the coaches, my teammates and the president of the club to figure out what we needed to change in order to be more successful. The good thing was that we had two weeks to prepare for our next game because the top team, Volero had to reschedule.

Practice started out being really good and everyone was working hard. We worked on trying to score in difficult situations, and I think throughout the week we made a lot of improvement. My knee was pretty swollen and hurt at this point which makes it really difficult to move and get low in passing. And of course this is the same knee that had ACL surgery last year. We had a friendly match against Dudingen on Thursday, and my knee was progressively getting more swollen with each practice. I only played in 1 set in order to try to help with the swelling and pain. Friday rolled around, and I was still experiencing a lot of pain and swelling so I just served balls in practice. My knee hadn't gotten this big in quite some time. Saturday was great because we had the day off so I just iced my knee and spent time at home. On Sunday we had two-a-days but the swelling was still pretty big. There is friend of our president who is a knee specialist and they decided to have him check out my knee. I was having a lot of pain on the inside of my knee. He pressed on it a few times, and I told him some of my other symtopms. He then told me that I might have torn my meniscus. That was really hard to hear since my surgery last year had trimed the meniscus.

They decided to have me see our team doctor to get his opinion on the situation. He looked at it and also agreed that it might be the meniscus. At this point, I was pretty upset. No one wants to hear that they might be hurt and having to go through surgery all over again. I was scheduled to have an MRI on Tuesday, and then hear the results of the MRI later that day. I'm really thankful that they would be able to look at it so soon- waiting for results is the worst.

Our team doctor came to practice and looked at the MRI. He said that my meniscus looked good (I breathed a huge sigh of relief!!) but that he noticed some cartilage that looked a bit odd. When I saw him the day before, I wrote out exactly, based on an email, what they did in my surgery for my ACL so he knew exactly what was done. In that first surgery they fixed my ACL, smoothed out some of my meniscus as well as some cartilage. He was concerned that the cartilage just wasn't right so he asked me to send the MRI scans to my old doctor since he knew exactly what happened in the surgery. To be honest, I didn't think much of it.

I practiced a few times this past week and started jumping on Thursday. My swelling had gone down a lot since I hadn't done anything since last Friday, and I was hoping that maybe I just pushed it a bit too much the week before. I didn't hear anything from my U of I doctor until Friday night. He looked at the new MRI and said that in one spot, I had completely worn away all the cartilage and now my two bones were rubbing against each other. He also said that there might be some damage to my tibia bone. I was stunned. I had no clue that this was going on at all. And then the worst news came... He told me that I should stop playing and that I needed to get cartilage restoration surgery. He explained that the bone brusing caused by my ACL accident indicated a severe impact. And that impact on the cartilage killed the repair cells in the cartilage. Thus I have been wearing away the cartilage faster than it could be replaced.

Sometimes I still can't believe that I actually need surgery.... again. I don't think it will really hit me until I'm in the doctors office talking about the different surgery options. I feel ok especially since my knee doesn't feel like its going to give out like it did with my ACL. Everyone who looks at the MRI says my new ACL looks great as well as all the other ligaments but its just that one spot, or pothole as my surgeon likes to call it, that is causing all the pain and swelling.

I had thought about staying here at least until Christmas because we have a lot of important games coming up in the next couple of weeks but my doctor advised against it. If I continued to play on it, it would only get worse. So unfortunately, I have a flight scheduled a week from today to go home. I know in my heart that it's the right thing to do ,but it's still really hard to leave volleyball and my team behind. They have all been supportive in this decision which does make it a little easier. I had such high hopes for coming back and playing again but it seems that its just not my time yet. I had such a great time here with this team, and I'm so thankful that I even got this opportunity to play. I will miss everyone so much, and I'll definitely be cheering for NUC in the states.

This might be one of my last posts although I can't decide if I'm going to post about how my surgery and rehab are going. I just want to give a big Thank You to everyone who has supported me these past couple of years. It's been a very hard time because of my knee but your support has made it a lot easier. Hopefully someday in the future.. I'll be playing profession volleyball again.

Daily Illini Article

A newspaper reporter who writes about Illinois Volleyball contacted Johannah Bangert and I to write a story about playing overseas. I think she did a great job conveying our experiences! Here is the link to the story!!

http://www.dailyillini.com/index.php/article/2011/11/illini_volleyball_alumnae_continue_careers_friendship_overseas

Most posts soon to come!

Amsterdam!

This past weekend was filled with lots of hours spent in the car.. but it was all worth it! We found out a couple weeks ago that our game was going to be switched from Sunday to Friday. So course we wanted to do some traveling in Europe so we decided to go Amsterdam. Unfortunately we lost Friday night in 4. To be honesty I played pretty terribly (I got taken out twice because I kept on hitting into the block) and they were playing one of their best games. The first set we won and it was one of the best comebacks I've seen. We were down 21-23 and Charlotte was put in as a serving specialist. She totally tore it up and served two aces in a row! It was such a good feeling to come back from behind! Things soon went downhill and we just couldn't find our rhythm. It was a really bummer that we lost. The team has two American's on the team and one I know pretty well. It was fun seeing Sabel from Northwestern across the net and it felt like old times. I hope in these next couple of weeks I can get out of my hitting funk and start playing like I know how.

It worked out perfectly that we were going on a mini road trip so we push the game and volleyball out of our heads for a couple of days. Bryn's younger brother is doing a study abroad program at a University at The Hague in the Netherlands and this would be the only time she could see him before he went home. So of course I contacted my friends Thijs, Serge and Ellen who are from the Netherlands and work at the University of Illinois volleyball camps. I've worked for the past four years and every year they always come back. It's such a fun reunion to see my friends from across the world!

The trip started out early saturday morning around 5 am. Luckily I didn't have the first shift so I slept most of the way. I honestly thought we were going to get lost a least a couple times on the way but google maps did a great job with directions. We also borrowed one of my teammates GPS just in case we got seriously lost. We made it to the Netherlands without a hitch. My good friend Thijs, who has been working at camps for at least 7 years, graciously offered to let me stay at his place for the weekend. I met him at a local gym because he was working and had a game later that evening! In between serving snacks he took me on a walk around town. One of the major things I noticed that was different from Neuchatel was that the houses were made of brick. Thijs told me that all the soil around the Amsterdam area is clay which is perfect for making bricks.

These apartment complex is known to most people in the town as the "bathtub". They call it this because the colors and tiles look like it would be in a bathroom.

A very modern green building

I've seen Thijs play at summer camps before but it was so cool to actually see him in action! The match I watched was very close but Thijs' team ended up getting their first win of the season! Here he is getting ready to hit!

After the match was over, we hung out with team for a bit but then decided to head home. Thijs took me on a big tour showing me where he went to grade school and even where he grew up. It was fun seeing things from Thijs' past. We got home, quickly popped in a pizza and watched a movie before heading to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a long day of walking around in Amsterdam!

The next morning we had a quick breakfast and headed to the train station to go to Amsterdam. I was pretty excited to see the city but I had no clue what to expect! I actually hadn't been to a big city in quite some time so it was nice to see tall, big buildings. One of the first things I noticed were all the bikes! Everyone rides bikes and there are even bike garages like this one! I wish America would change to this because its so much better for the environment and for yourself. If you forgot where you put your bike.. you might be in some trouble!

My other friend Serge, met us at the train station. It was surreal that I was in Amsterdam with my fellow camp coaches. Normally I only see them once a year and now I'm in their home town! We walked around for a while and then we later met up with Bryn and Lindsay. Here are some pictures we took of the city.

The train station

So many people! And it was even Sunday!

The government building.

Lindsay, Bryn, Me, Serge and Thijs

One of the many canals in the city.

Through out my visit in Amsterdam I learned some fun facts so here they are!

1.) If you look at a map of Amsterdam none of the streets go in a straight line. This is because of the canals.

2.) Some of the houses are built on a slant. We thought that the buildings were super old and the wood used to make them started rotting which might be the case for some. But actually they were built on a slant on purpose! The stairways are so tiny you can hardly get anything to the top levels so they built the apartments slanting forward so you could use a pulley to get items into the top levels easier. Can you see how far forward this house is slanting compared to the one next to it? And the pulley sticking out above the top window? Pretty crazy!

3.) Going into a coffee shop in Amsterdam does not mean you will get a coffee. Coffee shops sell Marijuana and Cafes sell coffee.

The next thing on our agenda was to take a tour of the Heineken plant. We all had a lot of fun doing these especially since they were serving samples! Here are some pictures of the tour.

Thijs and I!

The best part of the tour- the taste test! Serge Thijs and I enjoying our beers.

After our tour we headed to a local pub and got some more beers and food. Although we didn't see a lot of museums but it was still great being in good company with my friends. Bryn and Lindsay headed back to the Hague and I said goodbye to Serge. Thijs and I stayed in the city for a little longer. Another one of the coaches, Ellen, who coached at the U of I camps, met up with us later that evening. All in all the day was so fun and I can't believe I was able to see everyone!

We had one more thing to do before we headed back to Thijs' place. I don't really know the correct term for it but in a lot of places around the city they literally had food in the wall. You go up, pay a euro and open the little slot where the food is sitting. So of course I had to try it! I had the frikandel which tasted like a hot dog but had the texture of a chicken nugget. It was very good though! The whole trip was a blast and I'm so glad I went! It was wonderful seeing my friends and I can't wait until summer camps this year to see them again!

NUC Volleyball

My parents had a lot of fun on their visit but before they left, they were able to see one more game. This game was against Kanti Schaffhausen. For the past couple of weeks I'd been working hard on being a more effective hitter. In the beginning of the season, I wasn't scoring how I used to before I got hurt and not really playing like my normal self. Well that all changed in this game! I finally was able to get in a good rhythm with my setter. I had a lot of kills and I was the go to person for the match!

Action shot!! I'm the girl farthest to the right in the red! And my number is 18, just like in high school.

The first set we played pretty well and beat them 25-16. In the second set they came back fighting and this one was a lot closer. We ended up pulling out the set winning 25-23. They came out with a lot of fire in the third set but we won again with the scores 25-23. At the end of the match they always announce the MVP of the match... well this match I was the MVP! I was really proud of myself that I'm finally turning things around with my play. Hopefully I'll continue to get better and better.

Here I am accepting the MVP award!

A picture after the match with my parents. I'm sure you are curious why I'm holding this big stuffed cow.. well the nickname for my team is le vache which means cow!

It was hard to see my parents go but I'm very thankful that they were able to come visit. It's been over a week since they've been here and it's weird not having them around the apartment. Hopefully they will be able to visit this spring!

We also had another game this past weekend verses Volley Toggenburg. I didn't play at all because our coach wanted to give some confidence to the other players. I'm definitely ok with that because it gives my knee more time to rest. We ended up winning the match in three! The scores were 25-18, 25-16 and 25-18. I think our whole team is pretty strong and this game proved that. We have a big match this Friday against Koniz, which is one of the top teams in the league! Should be a lot of fun!

Third stop.. Gor du Vauseyon!

On Saturday, the day before my game, we were planning on making the trip to Geneva but that didn't exactly happen so instead we tried to find something else to see. My Dad was looking through the guide book again and saw that Neucahtel has a gorge and water mills. He loves going to dams so this was right up his alley.

It took a little time for us to get there because the gorge was right in the middle of some commercial buildings so we almost missed it. We finally made it down to the gorge and it was pretty cool! The mill was built in the 1537 and was used to make flour mill. They used the flowing water to power the grinders for the mill. There were actual water mills working and a beautiful water fall.

Here are some troughs that are used to transport the water to the mill.

At first all we could see were the troughs carrying the water. My mom soon discovered some stairs that lead us to a tunnel. In the tunnel were some water mills. Apparently above the mills where we were first standing was where the original house stood but now only the floor boards were left. All of the water was underneath the plant and then by rotating shafts they were able to power the mills up above. I don't understand it completely so here is a picture of what it used to look like when the mill was in action.

That same wheel in the above picture is in the picture right below.

There were stairs leading in the opposite direction so we decided to take those and see where it led to. We ended up walking a bit and found the end of the river. The river then goes into a tunnel so that it can pass through the city underground.

This picture is when we walked further down the trail. The window is the same window where the water mill was located just pictures before.

My Dad and I by the tunnel where the river flows into.

We came to a dead end so we followed the trail back to the original mill. We didn't explore the other side so we started walking in that direction. We came upon a beautiful waterfall. My Dad said that this time of year the water was pretty low but he was still surprised with how much water was still flowing. He also said that when there has been a lot of rain, the rock next to the water fall would also be covered and it would be one big water fall.

We followed some more troughs and it led us to a tiny tunnel! The tunnel was so low that I had to duck the entire time we walked through because I was just too tall! In this picture I'm standing straight up and not on my tiptoes. I also think its cool how the date of the tunnel is also etched right above it.

On our way back to the car we found a information desk and this cute old man started telling us all the details about the mills. We were able to understand him because he was a retired professor and spoke pretty good english. He was so passionate about the mills that we ended up talking to him for over 30 minutes! He gave us a lot of interesting information and I couldn't help but smile when he was talking. It was a fun afternoon but we headed home so I could rest up for Sunday's match!

Second stop.. Chaumont!

The day after we visited Bern, we decided to spend another afternoon exploring the town, but this time closer to home. My parents had picked up some brochures of different attractions that were close to Neuchatel but there were so many to pick from. Laura, one of my teammates, suggested we go to Chaumont because it is so beautiful and we were sold.

My mom noticed in one of her brochures that there was a scenic funicular that would take you right up the hill to the top. A funicular is a cable railway car that can take you up and down the side of a hill. This one is especially cool because the ride is about 15 mins long and the views are absolutely beautiful. There are other funicular's in Neuchatel but they only take about 5 mins. Some of them even go into the hill so you can't see anything but the tunnel.

We decided to take the bus to get to the funicular and it ended up working out great. This was the first time my parents had used public transportation over here since I had the car. They thought it was interesting how you have to push a button on the side of the bus to open the door when you want to get on. The great thing about the bus is that it took us right to the funicular station. The only downside was that we had to wait 45 mins for the next funicular because they don't run as often as the buses. We ended up getting snacks and the time seemed to pass quick.

This is the funicular station.

The tracks leading up the hill.

The funicular finally arrived and it was time to leave the station! Another interesting thing about the funicular is that people are allowed to bring bikes along too. There are a couple benches in the front, then room for bikes and then more benches in the back. The reason they allowed bikes to come aboard was because the Adventure Park that my team went to for welcome weekend has dirt bike paths! The trip up the hill was very beautiful. We were able to see Neuchatel lake and we lucked out that the weather was good!

The funicular!

These are some of the views we had in the funicular. It was a really beautiful day!

Once we got to the top we noticed that there was an observation tower where you could look overall of Neuchatel. So the next thing you know we climbing all the steps and we finally made it to the top. Well it was definitely worth it because the sight was beautiful! You could see Neuchatel lake, Neuchatel itself and even Marin. If the day would have been clearer we would have been able to see the alps too!

A close up of Marin!

Here is a short clip but it's much better in person!

We had a lot of fun but of course I had to get back to practice! More adventures coming soon!!