Poor Ryan

Last Friday, December 10th, Ryan had a PRP (platelet rich plasma) injection from his arm to his knee. "It wasn't very fun," says Ryan. He says it was the most physically painful thing he's ever had to go through, (in comparison to Staff infection in his face in Fiji that almost killed him...) . They couldn't put him under because that would counteract trying to reactivate the blood cells in his knee. The shot began. Ryan said, "Woah, I'm blacking out... I'm blacking out..." And then... his face went pale. His eyelids closed half way, one more closed than the other... his eyes shook back and forth rapidly... and then he went limp... and then his whole body shook 2 or 3 times, almost as if he went into a mini seizure. We looked at the doctor in a panic... "IS HE OKAY???!" The doctor didn't seem panicked at all. 5 to 10 seconds later, the doctor had his hand on Ryan's shoulder. "Ryan, Ryan? Ryan. Are you okay?" And then he woke up. and remembered how much pain he was in. Ryan passed out from the pain. It was hard to watch him in that much pain... After all was said and done, Ryan was freezing and in a lot of pain, so much that he needed a wheel chair to exit the building, and couldn't walk for the rest of the night.
So sad. The recovery is quite rapid though. He's already almost walking normal, although still in pain when he walks. We'll know in a few weeks whether or not this procedure works for Ryan. (sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, depending on the person)... to hopefully avoid surgery.

It was interesting to watch. They deadened the skin for him, at least. They had an ultra sound on his knee the whole time, so you could see exactly where the needle was penetrating. They poked his tendon in about 5 or 6 different places.

but he's recovering :) , trying to recover this winter break before the real tennis season starts up.