Joel's ACL Kung Fu Tournament

by Joel
(Brooklyn, NY USA )

Hi All,

Thanks for reading this.

I'm a 33 y/o male and have trained in martial arts for about 17 years (Northern Eagle Claw Kung Fu) so my daily routine often involves gymnastics, sparring, lots of awkward movements.

I was training for for a tournament (continuous fighting division) about two weeks ago and of course after maxing myself self out, I decided to try just a couple more kicks to make sure I had some "surprise" techniques in case I needed them during the competition. Worst mistake I could possibly have made ;)

I rarely use jump/spinning kicks in actual combat, but I wanted to practice it with a heavy bag so i would be used to the feeling of actually kicking something with that technique. Anyway, I landed horrible and completely tore my ACL off the bone. I knew I was finished even though I've never had this kind of injury before. My whole life for the next 12 months kind of flashed in front of my eyes as I was lying on the gym floor.

It's definitely been an interesting couple of weeks of learning about my injury, questioning doctors and questioning myself. It's amazing how everything can dramatically change so quickly.

I've already been to one doctor who immediately pushed an allograft on me, but his answers were pretty short and dismissive when i asked about other options. I left with an appointment for surgery, but a very uneasy feeling in my stomach about getting involved with this doc.

So I immediately hit the boards/chat rooms/ and info resource and decide to continue speaking to different doctors for a 2nd and 3rd opinion. I have an appointment tomorrow with a well recommended knee specialist and I feel so much better about not moving forward with the allograft. The auto patella just makes more sense for my needs.

Unfortunately my original doc. did not advise me to begin working on my ROM (in fact he told me to stay on crutches 9 days after the injury...not good!!!) so I'm not sure if I will be able to schedule surgery soon or have to do some PT to achieve maximum ROM.

I guess I'll know tomorrow what to do.

In the meantime I get to go (Sat.) to the tournament anyway and support my friends which is cool and hopefully I will be able to recover from this well and get back to training.

Thanks for reading this!

Reading about the experiences of others has been such a huge help.

Best,

Joel
www.yingjowpai.com