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I’m Chris Dickerson, former Major League outfielder. I played eight seasons in the major leagues with five different teams and I’ve suffered from knee pain since I was 12 years old.
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I spent most of my high school time on this field between football practice, soccer practice and baseball practice my entire high school athletic life was on this field. And I remember specifically my sophomore year doing drills and doing these hurdle drills and I felt like that was the beginning of the inevitable of the major knee injury. That is from my first surgery when I was in high school and that was by far the most painful procedure of any of them that I had. My doctor told me that I likely would not play organized sports at a high level past the age of 21 or 22 because the arthritis would eventually be so bad and I remember just bursting out into tears and having that type of information you know sent at you at 17 years old when you have so many dreams and ambitions and you know in the sports world it was crushing.
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I was first diagnosed with arthritis when I went in for my third surgery and then it kind of extended years later I remember 2010 the difference in having my x-ray before spring training and seeing the arthritic changes just within five years was really eye-opening.
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You know it’s not just athletes that suffer with this, there’s nothing worse than to start a day when you roll out of bed and you know your knee is killing you. You know I have a two and a half year old daughter who’s just discovering the joy of the bicycle, running after her and it’s a you know it’s a big deal. If you’re not feeling that it kind of it can wear on your you know getting wear on your patience a little bit. So you know my greatest sympathies to parents who who struggle with knee pain and arthritis, because I know that it’s not easy to keep a to keep a smile a smiling face all the time when you have this persistent knee pain.
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And I also want to express my gratitude to the orthopedic and sports medicine physicians who have helped me over the years and say thank you more broadly to the amazing work they do in caring for patients with arthritis. Thanks for letting me share my story.
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