Ashley's Unwanted Experiance!

by Ashley
(United States)

Hello my name is Ashley and im a sophomore in high school. I play volleyball, basketball and my main sport softball. It was volleyball season and my dad was having second thoughts about him wanting me to play. We had just got back from softball Nationals in South Dakota and college scouts were watching me play, he didnt want me to get hurt. Well I ended up convincing him to let me play. After all, I was on varsity for the second year.
Everything was going great! First scrimmage. I started, played middle blocker. Jumped up for the block, landed, on the floor. When I jumped up I felt a pop in my right leg and it felt like it gave out. I thought "oh it's nothing" since I have bad knees (since I'm a catcher and all.) I tryed to get up and I could'nt, thats when I felt the pain. It hurt so bad, I thought it would never go away and I'd never stop crying. My coach ran to me as soon as he saw me crying. ( I'm not the type to cry for anything. ) My mom called to see how we were doing in the scrimmage and I ended up telling her to come and she did. When she got there we went to the trainer. The trainer said everything felt good but that if the pain and swelling didnt go down , for me to go to the doctor for MRI's. Next day came, pain and swelling. Following day, I told my mom to take me in.
The doctor ordered MRI's and I went to go take them. Couple of days later I go back to the doctor's for the results. I was really nervous and scared. The doctor came in and said "Ashley, I'm sorry to tell you, but you have a torn ACL, and it requires surgery." My eyes got watery and I started balling. I could'nt believe it. We scheduled the surgery for 2 weeks. September 1st 2009. I knew that day was going to be the worst day of my life. I didnt want the surgery. We called my softball coach, and he was really disappointed. I felt that everybody was disappointed in me, even my parents. I felt they were because they didnt want me to play volleyball and thats what I was playing when I got hurt.
The week after that I got two letters for softball, Ole Miss and University of Illinois. My parents, family members and friends were all proud of me, but I felt my dad was mad. I think it hit my dad the hardest when we found out that I need surgery. Two days later my coach calls telling me a coach from a college wants me to call her ( since its against NCAA rules for them to contact us till we are seniors. ) I was shocked! "WHAT?!?! ME?!?! HAWWW!!! WHY NOW!?!?!" I said to my coach. Great things were happening for me in softball, all my hard work from 4 years of age till now has payed off, and im hurt. I was discouraged, but happy at the same time.
September 1st 2009. After waiting for what seemed like a lifetime. Finally I got called and followed the nurse to the operation room. It was freezing cold, and I did'nt know if I was shaking because I was nervous or because I was cold. When I layed down, I just remember them telling me to count to 10, and I think I got to 3 before I was out. I remember hearing the doctor checking up on me and him saying the surgery took longer because they found mt LCL was torn too. I fell back alseep and my dad woke me up telling me to eat something in order to take pain killers. I ended up eating animal crackers and held it down. It was go hard to get into the car. My leg was in a long brace that the doctor had to cut because it was too big for me and they cut it all uneven. I went in that building at 6:00am and got out at 4:00pm.
When I got home I had to have help off the car, to the bathroom, and on and off my bed. I missed being independent. I got this machine that bend my knee for me and I had to do "quad sets" to build up my Quad. Two weeks later I got the staples out and that somewhat hurt. Next thing I knew I was walking around without crutches.
I ended up missing two weeks of school, so you can pretty much imagine the stress I was under. I would get discouraged sometimes, but I fought through it. Now I have complete range in motion, running on the track, working out every other day and therapy twice a week! I hope to get back into softball for the summer at least! Well thats me ACL/LCL story!!!