So, I completely tore my ACL in my right knee, and partially tore another ligament (the one on the inside of my knee). I have crutches in case I can fall, but I can walk relatively normally, it's just in case I fall. I already met with the surgeon, Dr. Gilles Estour. I have an MRI scheduled for March 4th and then another meeting with him on March 8th to discuss the results. In the meantime, I'm going to the physical therapist between two and three times. I really like my physical therapist(s), my main physical therapist is named Nicolas, and the lady who he works with is named Fanny so when he's not there I see her. I like them both a lot and the office is very pretty and calming. I'm excited for the operation to be over and to be on the road to recovery. It'll take between six months and one year before I'll be able to play sports again. If the operation doesn't work, the ligament will "re-break" within the course of a year, and I'll have another operation, but they lose their effectiveness with repetition. The success rate is 85%-90%. I'm sad that there won't be any more tennis or rock climbing, and no surfing or running this summer. But I'm sure that this will be an experience that I learn from, and give me the opportunity to get better on the guitar!
I have some pictures from my new host family and from the last Rotary weekend, which was a week before I tore my ligaments. We went to St. Jean d'Arves, which is in the other main group of valleys, apart from the valley with Courchevel and Meribel (which is where I tore my ligament). It was really pretty, even though there wasn't a lot of snow. And it was great to see everybody! I also went snowshoeing for the first time in my life. I liked it a lot.
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| I'm learning how to cook a lot of things in my new host family, this was my first pizza! |
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| I make bread a lot. |
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| And quiches, with bacon or tuna (usually one of each). |
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| These are really, really, really good yogurts that they get at the market. |
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| St. Jean d'Arves, snowshoeing. |
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| There wasn't a lot of snow where our chalet was, but the mountains still had a lot. |
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| There was an optional snowshoe hike the afternoon, where we climbed up this really steep hill but then had an amazing view that was definitely worth it! |
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| Les Aiguilles d'Arves, the three mountain peaks that the valley is famous for. If you follow them you'll get to Italy. It's possible to do on foot. They're also very popular for rock climbing in the summer. |
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| The mountain right next door to the three peaks, it falls directly on the Tropic of Cancer, so it's exactly the same distance from the North Pole as from the Equator. |
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| And the host family's cat, Mallow. Because in French cat is chat and when you put that in front of his name, you get chat-Mallow, which is pronounced exactly like chamallow, which means marshmallow in French. |
