new to the forums/knee question
 

Hi,
I'm new to the forums here, and thought I would introduce myself. My name is Chris, 17 years old and hoping that one day I can join you guys. But if your wondering why I am posting here for my first topic, its because I have a question about knees. A little background info, I had knee surgery once, had it scoped with a lateral release, but there looking at the knee and saying it has arthritis in it now. The doctor is telling me I can't play hockey anymore, and can't do physical things, but I am a pretty stubborn kid and I don't like when people say I can't do something. My question is, what do you guys think about this? I know that it comes down to how bad you want it and how far you are willing to go to become Special Forces, but from what I've been told, the knee problems I have now can completely make me ineligible for the Army all together. And if I can't do Special Forces because of my knee, than I will go where they ask me to, I just want to hear what you guys have to say, and who knows maybe one of you had been told the same thing at one point. So thanks for the responses in advance. Oh and I didn't just run upon this site, someone informed me about it, I used to post on military.com and I was told to visit this site because it's the best place to come. Just wanted to make that clear so you don't think I am just some internet kid who thinks it would be cool to be in Special Forces. Once again,
Thanks,
Chris

Chris:

Any hockey player is OK with me. But please fill out your profile.

Welcome.

RL

Yeah sorry totally forgot about the profile, but its there now, good to know I have a fellow hockey supporter, I play defense, had to sit out this season because of the knee and they want to keep me out again, I told the doctor, no way in he11 I am sitting out another season.
Chris

You need to slow your roll and reevaluate what your goals are. Do you want to play hockey or do you want to do your part in the Army? Its one thing to be tough, but it is another thing to run your body into the ground. It’s the only body you will ever get. You need to rest your body until it’ healed and then pursue your goals.

Excellent advice

Thats a good point but I am just upset I can't do both, I understand its the only body I will have but I went from no problems for 5 years, to more than I can handle in just one month. So I guess its just overwhelming, but I do understand what your saying and I have been told that exact same thing, but I guess my thick head just hasn't comprehended it yet. But looking at it from your point, I would rather play my role in the Army. But I guess it would be hard to let my team down and just walk away from a sport where I accomplished a whole lot in my little time.
Chris

Based on you post it sounds to me like you ought to look at something other than SF. First of all if you already have arthritis and you have been told you are going to have physical limitations than this is not the profession for you. This really is not about how tough you are or how determined you are, it is whether or not you are going to be able to pull your weight on a team of 11 other folks and not hold them back. If you already know you are going to exerience problems than you are not only doing yourself a disservice but you are wasting the time of all the folks that are going to put you through training and may very well be putting your team at risk the first time out. Popping a couple of motrin, taping up a knee, and gutting out a hockey practice is nothing like what is going to be asked of you in SF.

Jack Moroney

Chris, pay heed here...i retired from the Army because i felt my body was no longer physically reliable...it was hard to walk away, but i felt that i could be a very distinct liability on the ground, and even though i was at a point where my ground time was going to be limited, i could no longer set the example i felt was necessary...the folks who are giving you good counsel in this forum are not without experience in the area of pain and injury...you have a retired Colonel who is recovering from knee surgery, an arthritic major who creaks when he walks (and he still walks all the time, thank you very much) and a whole list of others who have endured injury and wounds to complete missions, careers, to save friends and to live to a somewhat ripe old age...we ain't a buncha kids telling you to reconsider your priorities...we aren't being mean to you, we aren't trying to discourage you..but our PROFESSION is too important, not only to us, but to our country, to not be blunt with you...if you are young enough to consider enlistment and already arthritic, you would be a liability downrange...and it's too expensive to train people to fill the roles needed in SF...and good folks who can make it through the training are too damn hard to find...and good men could die compensating for your injuries...

that's my $0.02 worth...good luck, whatever you decide...

It's called "an inverse ratio of testosterone to common sense." Something you should probably outgrow. Explaining the necessity of taking care of the only body you will ever get reminds me a lot of trying to explain to the wife why it's necessary to change the oil and check the air pressure. Figure out your priorities - life is not (or should not be) a one hundred yard sprint. If you want to be around for the end of life's little marathon, you had better take care of what you've got. If you survive long enough to look back on the indiscretions of your youth, you will appreciate being able to do so without pain and discomfort dogging every moment. FWIW - Peregrino

You can still do cool shit. Go out and get a degree in something usefull and see where it leads you (gov wise).

Thank you for all the responses, I will be visiting the doctor today and I will inform you on what he says, I recently had an arthogram, which if you don't know its an MRI but they inject a clear ink into your knee when scanned by the MRI will show a contrast of color. So he will tell me how I am doing, I really do appreciate the responses though and it means a lot that you guys are willing to actually give feedback to kids like me. Thanks a lot and I was thinking about the fact if I could pull my own weight, but as I said I will see how I am doing and if I can do it I will, if I am physically limited, I will find something useful to do in my life and try and make a difference, once again, thank you.
Chris

I went to the doctor and waited an hour so that he could sit down and talk to me for 2 mins and tell me theres nothing more he can do. He says I should go back to my old doctor and see if we can't fix up my cartillage a little bit more. Theres the update on the knee. :D
Chris

You have received some good advice here.

IMHO, you need to stop being such a stubborn, linear thinker. I.e., fixating on how you can get from A to B as quickly as possible. Life is more about managing multiple, sometimes interdependent, contingencies and this is your first major lesson to that effect.

I know that it is difficult, but always try to focus on three horizons of personal action simultaneously.

1. Things which you want to do and can reasonably expect to achieve using your current skills and resources in the immediate future

2. Things which you may want to do, but which will require additional learning, growth, maturity, etc. to achieve and which are only likely to occur over the 1-3 year timeframe

3. Things which could possibly represent attractive achievements, but about which you must learn more before making a committment

To be successful in life, you must always be executing against all three of these horizons at the same time. Failure to do so is a critical personal failure. However, attending to each horizon requires a different set of actions, some of which are more burdensome than others.

In your case, I think your horizon 1 goals should be to rehab that knee as well as possible, even it it means foregoing competitive sports for a season, and focusing on your academics. Focus your full intensity on these things. Execute aggressively and diligently. Do not fail. Nobody cares about your excuses or alibis. To put it another way, your immediate task is to become a balanced man. Do not confuse that with an egocentric desire for high school glory.

Horizon 2 is up to you, but you probably have an intuitive sense as to what it entails. In any case, you should begin actively preparing for success in these things. Gather information. Forge relationships. Identify critical personal weaknesses and attack them vigorously. Take specific actions today and tomorrow to turn mere possibilities into options. Do you understand the difference?

Horizon 3 is where the military is for you right now. You shouldn't be actively executing against or preparing for it. Your task is to seed future options, which you will begin harvesting as time goes by and events unfold in your life. Some you will choose to exercise, and some you will let die after today's uncertainty is resolved. E.g., uncertainty about the future strength of your knee, your level of academic achievement, etc. When you are seeding options in this horizon, useful actions include:

1. Actions which extend the amount of time for which the desired option will be available to you
2. Actions which prevent your option from losing its value or decaying before you can exercise it
3. Actions which increase the potential payoff of an option

The more uncertainty you face, the more valuable these actions are to your future. Can you think of any steps you could take over the next few years that would fit into these categories? How would an immediate return to team sports affect your most important options in horizons 2 & 3?

The QPs here have been generous with advice and counsel. Show them that your brain is flexible, even if your knee isn't.

Good luck.

jatx and others -- well presented advice. Just like the "Training the Mind" thread, this is one that I will share with my children. Excellent!

cszakolczai -- make the right choice as you will be the one to live with it. Best to you on rehabiliating the knee.

Yes I understand what you are all saying and I thank you, I think I came across as to narrow minded and gave the impression that this is the only thing I want to do in my life but that is not the case. I am taking art classes in school along with architecture and that is what I will be focusing in as much as possible, making sure that I stay on top of these areas and try to make a career out of thse fields. My mind is flexible, well as flexible as any teenagers mind is. And ways that I can get places are by rehibilitating (sorry if i spelled that wrong) and than seeing if I can go to the Army, I know not to put my life on hold for the Army and than be let down if they tell me I am not elligible. I am a teenager and I plan on enjoying life and making the most of it, along with achieving goals in life such as getting my pilots license and making myself marketable for companies by doing well in the fields that I am interested in and accomplishing things other than jut the dream of going to the military, I understand what you are saying and you make points that are excellent and I think that I am going to print it out and put it inside my binders in school just incase i ever do become narrow minded, so thank you sincerly for the response and all the responses. I am not going to stop living life because of my knee but I will work around this and will work with it and strive to achieve other things that will help me along in my journey of life.
Chris