MB

My name is MB and I am a PhD student at UC Berkeley. I am originally from Russia so I got my undergraduate degree in Moscow and applied to the US universities. Since I am an international student, I have no relatives, family or old friends in America. That is why in case of any difficulty the help I can get is very limited. Unfortunately, I faced some difficulties in November 2018 that showed that having nobody around might be very hard. I used to play a lot of soccer in high school and university, so that is why I accepted my friend’s invitation to join his team. The season was going alright and the last game of the season was not supposed to be any different. However, during the last two minutes of the game I got injured. As I found out later, I tore the ACL in my left knee. For the first couple of weeks I was very limited in motion and could not even walk without crutches. Every move was painful. Two months later, after getting an MRI, vising the doctor several times, passing all my exams I decided to get a surgery. Well, I didn’t have many options if I wanted a healthy knee, but the surgery would bring me lots of troubles: financial and physical. On the 12thof February 2019 I got my ACL replacement surgery done and the same day was home. The first day was the hardest. I had nausea and headache after the anesthesia and every move was unpleasant. For the first 4-5 days I did not even try to go anywhere (except toilet of course) and my roommate helped me to bring food and go shopping when he had time. The most difficult part was that I had nobody around to help me during the day. All the friends and roommates were busy at work and school most of the time so I had to manage my life myself. Shower took me 50 minutes instead of usual 10, bringing food from the kitchen –10 minutes, etc. But, I did everything my doctor told me, started physical therapy, more walking, exercises. I worked hard and managed to regain some strength pretty fast. Then I started going to the gym, restoring knee motion and after 1 month I felt much better. The recovery will take up to 10 months, but I am sure that I can make it and possibly get back to playing soccer (very carefully this time). Fortunately, my doctor told me about the Orion Fund and I applied for their grant. With the help of the Orion I avoided the financial difficulties, because it covered the surgery expenses. I am very grateful to the people at the Fund because without them it would be much harder to recover from the injury!