This is R.J.'s father. I'm sorry to all that this post grew such legs. For the people that know R.J., I'll try to explain what happened. We think R.J. tore his meniscus sometime in mid-December. That is when he first told me that something popped in his knee during practice at STA. We iced the knee that night and he continued to wrestle in pain: never really complaining until Sunday's, the day after his tournaments. We had the trainer at STA look at the knee and he thought it might be tendonitus or bursitus. By mid-January, we made an appointment with an orthopedic. However, we couldn't get an appointment until Feb. 4, tommorrow. Last Wed., STA had a tri-dual with Bishop Miege and Olathe Northwest. It was during his match with Quinn from Miege that R.J.'s knee locked up on him. He could not straighten the knee that night nor until his surgery on Friday. He had what they call a buckethandle meniscus tear. Dallas, who I don't know, is right when he states that you can remove the meniscus and be able to wrestle in a week or so. But the removal of the meniscus, or cartilage that buffers the knee joint, leads to an arthritic knee 10-15 years later. R.J. is still 14, doesn't turn 15 till April, and as his parents, we felt it was extremely important for him to have the same opportunity to coach and raise his own kids without having a bad knee to deal with. The surgeon could not straighten his knee even after R.J. was put under, mainly because the meniscus had gotten out of place and torn in 3 locations. The doctor had to cut and come in from the back of his knee to stitch and repair the meniscus. That is what made the total healing process approx. 4 months. Thanks to all who took up for R.J., Amanda, Sean, Richard, Vince, Kurt, and rhill. That will mean alot to R.J. and means alot to me. R.J. is extremely disappointed he can't finish this high school season but he will be back this summer and looks forward to 3 more years at STA. Good luck to everyone wrestling in regionals and state.
Randy Nill