Going under the knife

Bailey Larsen, Reporter

Surgery begins by connecting a patient to a series of IVs.  These IVs help administer pain blockers to shield the patient from pain in case they wake up mid-surgery.  Then a team of medical professionals strap the patient down as they drift into unconsciousness.   Despite their youth, several athletes have gone through this nerve wracking experience, ranging from ankle surgery to brain surgery.

Junior Leah Taylor rolled her ankle during a volleyball game in September of 2015. She continued to put weight on it.  Unable to heal properly, the ankle soon worsened. The injury ended up being two torn ligaments leading to a stress fracture in her ankle. To fix this, Taylor had surgery placing an anchor from the ligament to the bone and a titanium plate under the bone. She was misdiagnosed four times. All four doctors gave her a different diagnosis which all called for different recoveries. One said she needed therapy, one recommended a boot, one said surgery, and one even told her she was perfectly fine. By the time she was told she needed surgery, it was a year later.

“I spent the whole summer sitting on the couch,” Taylor said.

Eight months later Taylor is still facing complications. She recently tore a ligament in the back of her knee. A frustrated Taylor said she was glad to finally get the correct diagnosis.

“I just wasted so much time with waiting on wrong doctors.” Taylor said.

Junior Garrett Murray tore his ACL during a football game when he cut back on the turf field. His surgery was completed on October 19, after waiting two weeks for the swelling to go down.

Post-surgery, Murray was on crutches for a few weeks and had to wear a brace on his left leg for a month. He couldn’t bend his knee that whole month.

“Getting strength back in the knee was the most difficult part,” Murray said.

Since surgery Murray has physical therapy three times a week.

“I still can’t pivot yet, but I haven’t had any other difficulties, it’s still just there,” Murray said. “I don’t like the fact that people gave me sympathy. That’s what I hated the most.”

Murray said he was most scared of what other people had warned him about surgery.

“All the stories and facts that it might not go well or how painful it will be. The fear factor was the worst,” Murray said.

Junior Brendon Bacon had two surgeries on his head. Because of birth defects Bacon needed decompression surgery for chairi malformation: his brain was too big for his skull which caused the flow of brain fluid to make a cyst. To fix this they took off part of the back of his skull to make room for his brain.

The symptoms, such as unexplained shooting pain down his arm didn’t start until about 7th grade. This past August he had to go to the emergency room and they scheduled surgery for three days later.

“The worst (part of surgery) is the unknown and the limitations you’re going to have,” Bacon said.

After the surgery the first thing Bacon remembers was the massive amount of pain. The therapy after surgery was to make sure he could move his legs and help ease him back into activity. Bacon had to get used to being less active and he was no longer able to play contact sports.

Bacon had two surgeries. The first was at Bromenn. He then switched and had the second to correct the first surgery. The second surgery was done by a doctor at the University of Chicago.

“It was a good choice. Dr. Fremm is the best in the U.S,” Bacon said.

The hardest thing for Bacon was dealing with and managing the pain. Later, it was getting back to going to school. Trying to keep mentally sane was difficult but he was able to manage with the help of his twin sister, junior Jaqueline Bacon, who went through similar surgery.

“Jaqueline is a life saver. She’s a really good twin,” Bacon said.

The advice Bacon said he would give to anyone about to have surgery is this, “Don’t worry about it. Just relax. Everything will be fine.”