My knees were always loose. My left knee was looser than my right; that’s just how I was built. I had partially dislocated my left knee twice before but I thought nothing of it because the pain would go away within a few minutes.

In late 2016, I was going to go for a run. I hopped off my front step, landed awkwardly on my left leg, and my left knee popped out. There was a sharp, searing pain that was quickly replaced with a pain you typically get from a bruise, only about 20 times worse. At least my knee popped itself back in!

This injury was followed by a few months of physical therapy. I gradually regained strength and I was back to regular physical activity (while wearing a J-brace) by May.

Edit: I thought I was back to regular physical activity! The brace helped, but without it my knee was still wobbly and there was a crunching and clicking sensation when I moved it. I did not think much of this, though—all I wanted was to get back to cross country.

During the summer of 2017, I trained vigorously for the cross country preseason. I wanted to get back to my speed the previous year. During the first two cross country meets, I discovered I was a lot slower, and my left leg was aching from all the distance runs. I decided to discontinue mid-season and see a doctor again.

The doctor said I had a stretched MPFL (medial-patellofemoral ligament) from dislocating my knee that December. The MPFL is the ligament that attaches from the inside of the knee to the kneecap, and it keeps the knee from dislocating. The doctor recommended MPFL reconstruction. My stretched MPFL would be replaced with a cadaver ligament.

My family and I did not like the surgery option, so we saw more doctors. All of them recommended surgery. My family did not believe any of these doctors, so we waited to see if my knee would heal on its own.  It did not. If anything, my knee became looser, and the crunching sensation was louder and much more frequent. Cross country probably damaged my knee even further. We finally decided to schedule a surgery date in August 2018.

Then, plot twist! In late February of 2018, I was walking normally at school with my brace on. For some reason that day the inside of my left knee ached. As I was walking to my next class after lunch, my knee suddenly popped out sideways. I experienced pain similar to my initial injury. If it had not been for the brace, my knee would have definitely popped all the way back out.

This was the last straw for my family and me. We rescheduled the surgery date to March 29, 2018–a day before school Spring Break started. (Another reason for the rescheduling was because my brother had just dislocated his kneecap in late January. My family is genetically predisposed to dislocating kneecaps, I guess.)

NOTE: I read a lot of stories about how people who receive MPFL Reconstruction have completely dislocated their kneecaps five, ten, even twenty times. I only had one major dislocation, but I still needed the surgery. This goes to show that everyone’s symptoms are different and you cannot directly compare your symptoms to other people’s.