perspectives
Hip hop dancer shares her journey and 3 key ways it has changed her perspective
Athlete: MICHELLE MACROHON
Michelle Macrohon is a Filipino/Chinese born and bred in Southern California. As the oldest sister of two sisters, daughter of her superwoman mom, and passionate friend to loved ones, her universal purpose is to leave people and places better than she found them. Through this, she aspires to become a super-connector, community advocator, tech-entrepreneur, and overall a positive influence to those all around her. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara as an Asian American Studies Major, Education Minor, and earned her Technology Management Certificate. Besides engaging online through memes or sharing her excitement about life, she loves dancing, cooking, travelling, and spending time with people she cares about. If she would want you to remember her for anything, it is to “Stay Blessed”.
“January 2018: I went to Ulta with the homies on a bright and sunny day. I was having such a good day with them that I decided to express my gratefulness by doing karate kicks in the air (I was in Karate when I was 8 hehe). To give you a better image, imagine a Mulan looking girl in warrior mode. We were just having a grand ol’ time and then one of them said “wait wait wait, one time for the Snapchat” and of course I said, “I’m down.” And instead of doing the jump kick in place, I ran and then jumped and executed a clean kick in the air but unfortunately, my landing was a failure.
Woman down, I’m on the floor holding my left knee crying but at the same time laughing but crying 😭 I was a mess. They carried me to the bench and we laughed it off and she got me some ice. Fast forward, I check in with student health and the doctor said minor tear, gave me some exercises, pain killers, and suggested Physical Therapy.
Between January 2018 and July 2018 I was still in school, going to events, dancing in my room, exercising, and running around. My insurance was going through transitions so I didn’t go through PT and just proceeded with the suggested exercises and rest. But my hardheaded self went back into dancing and moving around because I love just being active. The minor annoyance on my poor left knee has followed me since that day but was tolerable so I would just stretch here and there and continued to live my active life.
July 2018: I left to Singapore and the annoyance still followed me. It is kind of like having a stuffy nose that I never took care of. I walked around, a lot, and joined a dance team which probably worsened my injury but I thought stretching and exercising would help, as I was told just to be careful and strengthen the muscles around the knee.
January 2019 arrives and I’m back in beautiful Santa Barbara. I decided I would like to perform in PCN “Pilipino Cultural Night” in our Modern (Hip-Hop) and Paseo de Narciso (Cultural dance). I LOVE DANCING. Practices are every week and I have an absolute blast.
February 19, 2019: I had modern practice. We were practicing the Ariana Grande - 7 Rings piece and one of my favorite parts was the twerk drop. I anticipated the drop, maybe got too excited, and slipped on pebbles and re-injured my knee. I felt it pop and my friends carried me to the side.
Fast forward I went to the student health again and visited their urgent care. They referred me to Ortho (they didn’t do this when I came the first time the beginning of 2018) and this is where I met Dr. Ryu. He played with my knees and told me it seemed my ACL was torn but said I should get an MRI to confirm.
March 6, 2019: I went to Pueblo Radiology to get my first MRI (thanks to K for taking me) and I had no idea how loud it would be. She asked me what Pandora Station I wanted, I said: “Drake please”. I was in it for no more than 30 minutes, I actually fell asleep despite how loud it was lol.
March 11, 2019 was my consultation with Dr. Ryu. And here I am now trying to decide when I should get the surgery. Wondering what are my options, will insurance pay for it? It’s not a matter of whether I should get it or not, I now need it. 10 months? The first weeks are the worst and 7 months is only 70% recovery. :,,,(
June 27, 2019 SURGERY.
Moral of the story: Take care of all your injuries, respect your body, as she is your temple and takes care of you. Don’t be hardheaded like me!
As you can see, above was a timeline from injury to surgery. That being said, if there is no extreme rush to get surgery, a huge lesson that I am happy I followed was, to really spend the time to think about the practicality of a surgery date. I was originally scheduled to have surgery in the middle of my second to last quarter of my 4th year of college. I rushed because I wanted to get it over with. I am so grateful I changed it to when summer started because, although it is not impossible to do it during hectic times, if the option is there to be able to rest thoroughly, mentally too because the medications just knock you out. It is highly recommended to consider if an option.
(1) HOW HER ACL TEAR CHANGED HER PERSPECTIVE ON LIFE
My perspective on “health is wealth”. Having always been someone who has advocated for mental health, ACL recovery is not only challenging physically but mentally.
Physically, I am such an active person but for the first two months, the graft (ACL replacement) starts out strong but weakens before it can get stronger. A great reminder from the Dr. was that “You’ll feel like you can, but you can’t. So always be conscious of that.” This was at an appointment after I had gone out for the first time 3 nights before. In short, ACL recovery has challenged me to enjoy life differently.
My ACL tear also opened up different doors in the health industry. I have Medical and my whole life going to Dr. appointments, I remember expecting to wait for an hour+. Dr. Ryu is our visiting surgeon who owns an independent practice Downtown Santa Barbara. When he realized that I had torn my ACL he wanted me to make sure by getting an MRI. I received the results and it was true. Being a broke college student meant flooding thoughts, “How am I going to pay for this?” Kindly, he offered to do it for FREE. He told me that he remembered being a broke college student. Although this tear has shown me the dollar amount expense of life and limbs, it also challenged me to look for the resources, which ARE AVAILABLE. In my own deep thoughts, it really showed the disparities between state medical services vs. private practices.
(2) HOW TEARING HER ACL GAVE HER A GREATER SENSE OF APPRECIATION
I appreciate those who have been supportive: my family a lot, my partner, friends, and even strangers. I have noticed that people tend to be kinder when they see you're impaired. For example, my mom took two weeks off just to make sure I was taken care of. Our body is our armor so when our armor is weakened, it can sometimes lead us to feel easily influenced by outside factors. For me, I feel like I have lost a lot of confidence. This is something I work on by not letting the feeling of sluggishness make me feel ugly. But I appreciate the beauty of life and how it exists effortlessly still, so it is up to me to fight against the temptation to pity myself or want pity from others.
A huge appreciation I have is all those I see at Physical Therapy. I have grown a relationship with my Dr. and staff because beside them just telling me what to do, we talk about life beyond my injury.
(3) HOW TEARING HER ACL MADE HER MENTALLY STRONGER
I’ve never gotten surgery before and let me tell ya, I was out like a light. One second I was awake, then boom she was SLEEP. Pain sucks, crutches also are a pain but the Percocets help but I’m a couch potato. Shoutout to Dr. Ryu and his team for making my first time very comfortable 🙏🏼 and of course, couldn’t have pulled through without the loved ones. And bruh, Health is wealth and now that my life feels like it has slowed down x1000, I’m shooketh. But hey, cheers to the upcoming 6 to 10 to 12 to however many months it takes until I return to 100% 🤟🏼
Oh my goodness. Let me tell you if the Dr. says get poop softeners, use em. I literally died because of constipation so now I’m off the Percocets. One thing I learned from trying to poop through that kind of is that “the lows help you appreciate the highs” and I’ve never been as grateful for a normal poop than I have since been on the Percocet.
REALLY LISTEN TO WHAT THE DOCTOR SAYS AND PT. It’s crazy how I lost so much muscle and how precise, intricate, and careful one should be when refiring the muscles.
Life is not about certainty. Certainty is what we try to attain for a sense of security. Life is Mother Nature and unpredictable and it’s human to never assume these kinds of injuries will happen to us. But it does and I hope that if you’re going to learn anything from this is that:
Health is Wealth! But if you are in a place of recovery, don’t let it get the best of you - think about it as if you are “sharpening your knife.” We can’t cut at a tree with a dull knife. Think of the tree as life and yourself as a knife. I just can’t wait until I get to dance again, walk properly, skip, and all that good stuff. But patience is key and sometimes you need a minor set back for a major comeback.”
Thank you Michelle for sharing your experiences to inspire athletes across the globe!
SPECIAL THANKS TO a KEY PLAYER IN Michelle’s RECOVERY TEAM:
Dr. Ryu, Orthopedic Surgeon