On July 25, 2025 days away from going back home from our 2 week family reunion to Coron & Davao I had an accident.
We were at Alta Mers, the mountain behind me was Mt. Apo. I was recording myself as I posed so I could take screenshots as photos, then I thought hey, I haven’t done jump shots for a long time, I should do one now and I shouldn’t have let my thoughts win. It wasn’t exactly my weight that got me injured it was me not thinking it through, that road I was standing on was a slanted road so it does explain why my left leg didn’t really stick the landing.
Some family members saw me, my uncle from the US helped me up. Honestly no one could’ve done anything to prevent the accident. So then I went back to our villa and asked the front desk for an ice pack. Then a little later we were checking out and going on to our day tour which was a struggle for me with my injury I had to step-skip (step with the ball of my left foot and skip/hop my right foot forward).
The next day was surprisingly a free day so an aunt and uncle who are Davao locals took me to get an X-ray of my leg. Anyway the results were negative. That’s good news coz there’s no bone fractures. But we were staying at a different hotel this day and the next day we’re off to move to another hotel. This is the stressful part of the itinerary for my cousins and I because we could’ve just went from Alta Mers to Lanang but the itinerary was Alta Mers, City, Lanang.
Anyway, next day I had to ask my cousins to get me stuff like a cane so it would be easier for me to walk, not really easy but easier for my injured leg. I’m also glad I didn’t join them at the mall as my brother and I found out that you can’t take the hotel wheelchair to the mall because the mall has their own. Only to find out that the mall’s wheelchair is point to point. After my brother and I got to the restaurant to eat dinner the guard had to take the wheelchair with him and once we were headed back to the hotel my brother had to call for another wheelchair to take us back to the hotel where the hotel wheelchair is waiting. 😓 I guess Philippines isn’t really PWD friendly knowing this.
We got back to Manila on July 28. I couldn’t get an ortho appointment for July 29 as the ortho was out. I was only able to get an appointment on Aug. 1 then on Aug. 2 I got an MRI as requested by the ortho. Went back to the ortho on Aug. 3 with my scans not knowing that he needed to see the findings that would be emailed to me (got the email the night of) but upon checking my scans he told me that it looks like an ACL tear and there are fluids.
I checked my email before sleeping and there it was “complete ACL tear” I was devastated that I cried before going to sleep. From then on I keep being anxious about my knee and about rehab and healing. Even as I’m typing this I’m tearing up.
For now I’ll be doing rehab but I plan on getting surgery next year. Upon research it would take 6-12months for recovery after surgery.
I thought this would be my year, as someone who was born in year of the snake I never thought something this awful would happen to me.
I keep thinking that if given the chance to change one thing from my past this would be it, I wouldn’t have done that jump shot.