Kristen's Surgery and Re-tear

by Kristen
(Lee's Summit, MIssouri )

Hi, I'm Kristen and I'm 16. I play volleyball and basketball. Last November, I tore my ACL for the first time during the last few minutes of the first basketball practice. I had my surgery in December. I am NOT going to lie. It was hard, it was painful, and it sucked. I spent the next 6 months rehabing hard trying to get back for volleyball. The therapy was very hard, but it was fun because you can see your progress and it was a way to exercise. I got the release in july and I had no touble at all coming back to competing and playing. A little soreness here and there, but no major problems.
The volleyball season ended and I went on to basketball. It was exciting to play basketball this year since I hadn't in a while, but I was nervous I was going to do awful. It was the last few minutes of the first practice when I planted to pivot and my knee popped and I went down. It was the same pain that I had last year and at that moment, I knew I retore it. I was even wearing my brace. I was so upset to think I that I have to go through it all over again. I have surgery in a week and at this point I'm not sure if I can play sports ever again. I'm absolutely devastated.
When I asked my doctor why this happened, all he said was that it is very rare, but sometimes it just does. There is nothing you could have done differently about it. He said that he could tell with the MRI that all my other tendons and ligaments looked fine and he could tell that I rehabbed hard, it just happens.