MY JOURNEY THROUGH THIS HARDSHIP.

by Madi
(Idaho)

Hey there everyone,

I am a fifteen year old high school girl and just suffered an ACL injury. I did it in a summer league basketball game of June 4, 2011. Now usually these injuries are done without contact, but in mine situation, I was basically tackled by one of my own teammates and another girl on the opposite team going for a rebound. After I got hit I heard a pop in my left knee and went down crying and screaming "oh no!". Now everyone that has ever heard a 'pop' in their knee or anything knows that it is like a death sentence, especially for a athlete! As I got carried to the bench, my grandpa was examining my knee and saying how i didn't tear my ACL and how I was going to be fine...blah blah blah, but I thought "i heard a pop and I've heard tons of other stories where people hear a pop and go down and they tear something in their knee."I iced my knee for the rest of my game and was helped out to my car. As me and my parents drove home i felt, 1) anger 2) sadness 3) pain 4) disbelief. I thought...how and why did this have to happen to me. I hardly ever got injured except when i hyper-extended it in January of 2010. I was only out for 3 weeks and came back as if nothing was wrong. But i had a feeling that what had just happened to me would put me out alot longer than 3 weeks. As I got home that night, I was going through a range of emotions and an emotional wreck! We have a local physical therapist who happened to be my old basketball coach. He was able to see me that night and examine my knee. This was the one guy i trusted. As I got examined by him he did a test on my knee that could tell if there even was a ACL in there connected. He would snap my knee and if it stopped then he knew the ligament was still connected. After about 30 seconds he said "I'm really sorry, but you did tear your ACL." Instant tears came to my eyes and i felt my whole world crumble around me. My sports career had defined me and being a 6'1" girl going into her sophomore year I knew that I HAD to get through this!I made varsity volleyball my freshman year and jv/varsity basketball that year as well. I find it funny when people say "your whole world flashes before you"...i felt my whole future flash before me. I saw me missing out on my volleyball and basketball season, being unhappy, crying alot, and surgery!My pt was 100% sure, but if there was anyone who would be able to tell if you tore anything...it would be him. The next day i visited a local doctor and she also examined my knee but wasn't positive what i had done because of the swelling. I had a MRI scheduled the next day and if anyone has ever gotten a MRI, they are not comfortable ha ha. I came home about 3 days later. My mom had this look on her face of sadness and I knew that she had gotten the results from the MRI and clearly they weren't good. So it ended up that I had completely torn my ACL, strained my MCL, and bruised the bones around the area. I met my orthopedic surgeon the next week and he was very cool about the whole thing. He even said that I could walk and live my life normally but i couldn't run or jump or do anything to jeopardize hurting my knee anymore. So basically the whole next month I hung out with friends and did all the stuff I would normally do except for be super active. Then the date July 13 rolled around and I was getting ready to go into the operating room. The whole process took about 6 hours to get checked in, operated on, and checked out. The weird thing is that i had a slight meniscus tear and MCL tear that my doctor caught while operating so make sure your surgeon catches everything that's wrong because the MRI can miss something and you do NOT want to go back in for another surgery. Now I don't think that everyone uses it, but my doctor prescribed me the CPM machine. (Continuous Passive Motion) This thing is a life saver and it gets your knee moving right away. So literally 30 minutes after i had gotten home i strapped my knee in the machine and it was moving it up to 40 degrees and straightening it to 0 degrees for the first four days. Then for the next couple days you move it up 5-10 degrees each day until you get to 90. I've been upping it 10 each day and am already at 70. I go in to see my doctor in two days so I'm planning on getting to 90 and getting off the machine by the end of the week. I've even been doing leg lifts and exercises. I'm hoping to start physical therapy next week or so. I know that process will be long and hard but I'm ready! I'm missing out on all my best friends and sisters last volleyball season and some friends basketball season. I know this is a super long story , i hope it helped you in one way or another. And remember: its okay to cry, your life is not over(even athletically), you will get frustrated, it will hurt, and GOD is always with you..the WHOLE way through. If you have any questions or anything you can comment below.


Sincerely, Madi (: