Ben's Baseball Blunder

by Ben Stuckey
(Appleton, WI)

Hi my name is Ben and I am 20 yrs old and tore my acl 2 months ago to this day. I was playing baseball and was running down to first base trying to beat out a ground ball. The throw was a little up the line so I had to duck out of the first baseman's way and touch the base. It was an awkward position and freak thing and I ended up tearing my acl with some meniscus damage as well.

I did not hear any pop or anything but I definitely felt my ligaments or something else move inside of my knee. I knew it was bad. I could walk around about 5 minutes after but about 1 hour later I couldn't. It took about a week to confirm it was torn and then I started "pre-hab" getting ready for surgery.

I tore my acl on June 17th and had surgery on July 17th. It's good to get your strength back and ROM before surgery. I thought it was weird at first doing things w/o an acl but u could live without it. Surgery is an interesting day to say the least. You go into the hospital, wait for hours possible and then go into the prepping room where u r relaxed with some drugs and told what you will go through. The anesthesiologist also did a crazy nerve block thing which if u had or have this surgery u know what I'm talking about. Once I entered the surgical room I moved onto the table with some help and pretty much was gone and then woke up with people trying to make me open my eyes. I was too dizzy from the anesthesia so I couldn't stand up and had to stay overnight in the hospital. The surgery took 4 hours cause he had to do some other things, I would explain but I don't want to make this too lengthy. Everything went well though.

After surgery the first week is boring and frustrating. I recommend watching many movies. I was on this CPM machine for a week and a half which helped a lot. Also ice a ton. Right now is August 17th, exactly a month after surgery and I'm doing well. I can go up stairs easily and down ok. I am walking fine (got off crutches in around two weeks). In therapy I'm doing lots of balancing things, biking, and doing little squats and leg presses. I'm on the track and field team at my college so I'm hoping to get back by January.

Anyways thanks for taking the time to read this, I hope it helped with any questions or doubts and I hope everybody gets better and back to normal soon! If there are any more ?'s feel free to ask.