Knee replacements are a topic that usually comes up later in life. But GearJunkie’s Nicole Qualtieri is facing down two knee replacements at age 35. This is the first part of her story, told as it unfolds.
The first time I severely dislocated my knee I was in second grade. A few kids had gathered to play soccer in a cul-de-sac, and upon kicking the ball, I felt a screaming pain in my right knee. I looked down and my kneecap was gone. It had slid to the underside of my knee.
I don’t remember screaming or crying at that point, but I do remember an instinct sweeping over me that left nothing else to be considered but the obvious.
I sat down on the curb, and I put the kneecap back into place on my own. The whole event rings so clearly: the ER visit, the big blue brace I had to wear, being on crutches, and people not believing me when I said my kneecap had been out of place and I’d put it back.
It took a while to convince people that I needed help. It’s the kind of lesson that sticks.
Since then, I’ve had a lifetime of dislocations in both knees. It’s a bit of anatomical bad luck combined with a few decades of soccer, lacrosse, running, hiking, and general mayhem. And a bout of Lyme’s disease in my twenties exacerbated the whole thing.
A Final Attempt at Salvage
![backpack backpack](https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.gearjunkie.com/uploads/2020/02/backpack-700x525.jpg)
When Your Best Option Is the Only Option
New Doc, New Take
Waves of Change
It Happened
![knee knee](https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.gearjunkie.com/uploads/2020/02/knee-700x467.jpg)