Cat's ACL Catastophe

by Cat B
(Oradell, NJ)

I tore my ACL my senior year playing volleyball. I was pulling outside getting ready to spike and when I landed my foot planted and my body kept going and when I tried to get up it felt like my bones were not correctly aligned and it within 10 minutes it was extremely swollen. I did a month of rehab before my surgery because I wanted to postpone my surgery until after my senior trip to Disnery World. I had a patella tendion graft reconsturction on May 15, 2008 and worked my butt off at physical therapy so I would be able to walk without the huge imobalizer for prom and graduation and in the end I was able to. Once I got past prom and graduation I continued to work hard so i would be able to get to the beach with my friends and fully functional for the start of my freshmen year of college.

After about four months of rehab I started experiencing pain and weakness in the knee to the point where it was giving out on me. I went to the doctor who told me everything was fine, however all my physcial therapists told me my knee was too lax. Long story short, its been a little more than a year since my last surgery and my doctor has decided he wants to completely redo my surgery using a allograft tendion. I literally started to cry in his office thinking about going back to square one and starting all over again and having to give up another summer.

After I am completely rehabed from this surgery, it will have been 2 1/2 years since I was last able to play my all-time favorite sport volleyball. I'm just really frustrated!