Worst physical injuries

I severely hyperextended my left knee when I was sixteen. I was playing football with some friends and I attempted to block the runner. In order to deflect the full force of his blow, I hunched down, knees bent. Sensing this, he tried to do a quick slide between my seperated legs for extra yardage.

We were playing in his side yard, near a gnarly, old red maple. Extending from the tree's base was a network of exposed roots which had been weathered and hardened over years.

During his slide, his right foot caught an exposed root and was unexpectedly cast upward. Carried by the full momentum of his run and slide, his foot plowed straight into my bent knee, causing the joint to invert itself. I remember it in slow-motion to this day; I stood there near helpless as I watched my own knee buckle underneath me.

The pain was excruciating. Hyperextension isn't as bad as a torn ACL but it's still pretty undesirable. In fact, the pain was so great that it became displaced and I threw up a minute later.

My friends carried me down the street to my house, where I put a shitload of ice on the injury and tried my best not to move ever again. Considering the type of injury, I should've gone to the E.R. but I didn't. I knew that if armed gunmen suddenly burst into the house and demanded I stand up fully, I could...maybe...for a second or two.

I could barely walk for two weeks and couldn't walk properly for two months. Luckily, this all happened during summer vacation, so I didn't miss school. But my boss at the Ponderosa Steakhouse was less than thrilled. I was the best busboy/dining room attendant the place had and my presence would be missed on busy nights. Even when I came back, it was extremely aggravating to haul full buspans to the back on a bum knee.

To this day, that knee still suffers repercussions from the injury. It's arthritic and has become a "trick knee". It can sense approaching storms since the barometric changes sometimes trigger pain. And kneeling on it for more than five minutes at a time caused the joint to lock up completely, requiring some hefty limping and brisk walking to loosen it up again.

Jam it back in, in the dark.