Dan needs Knee surgery!

(Read this whilst sad/dramatic music plays for maximum effect)

On my mum's birthday (28th April) we were playing our weekly game of 5-a-side football when I made a terrible mistake. We were losing by about 5 or 6 goals but I didn't want the opposition to get one more in and I defended too hard. I planted my foot down, my opponent changed direction and I twisted my knee when I couldn't keep up. I heard a pop and felt everything turn to jelly behind my knee. A week of scans later and I've discovered that I have torn my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) completely, and my MCL is also partially torn. 

I couldn't walk for the first few days, but even now that I feel a little better the physiotherspist has instructed me not to walk around and inflame my knee. I can't extend or bend my leg past certain ponts and will need to have surgery to reconstruct my ligaments if I want to get the motion back and return to my active lifestyle.

At the moment I can't even bend my knee enough to ride my motorbike which is reallly hard for me. I can't ride my bicycle either because I can't turn the pedals properly. My dog Medo isn't getting walked as much because it's painful for me and I can't stand him suffering because of my injury.  I really want to get back to doing all of those things as usual as soon as possible so I want to get the best care for me as I can. 

At the moment I am paying $70 a week for physio visits to get my knee ready to be operated on. Mum and I have already spent $100 on knee braces. Long term studies suggest that there is a lower risk of injury to the meniscus if surgery is performed within the first 6 months of the injury. Currently if I chose to be put on a waiting list at a public hospital, I will be waiting for 9 - 12 months. If I go private then I will only be waiting around 4  weeks from when my knee is strong enough to operate on. The costs involved for that would be upwards of $4,000. 

So I'm calling in all my favours. If you've ever said "I owe you one", or "let me know if there's anything I can do for you", this is it. Please donate what you can or spread the word so I can reach more people who are in a position to help. You'll collect good karma and I'll be able to get back to work faster.

Xoxo

DIBS/ Dani/ Lela/ Daniela

p.s. if you want to see me keep scoring goals like this then I'll need to get better! https://youtu.be/BzzR5352BOI