Mary's ACL

by Mary
(New Zealand)

I was playing in a summer 5 a side soccer tournament and it was the last 5 mins of the last game of the day, I was running toward the goal and kicked the ball a little too far in front of me and the defender picked it up and as I quickly turned to get the ball back I heard a very loud crunching noise coming from my leg. First of all I thought I had broken my leg as did everyone else as the sound was more like a crunch than a pop but the pain was coming from my knee and it was excruciating. After the pain started to subside my knee swelled up like a balloon and when I attempted to stand on it I knew straight away that I had done some serious damage. The bottom half of my leg felt detached from the top half. I went straight to the hospital and got some x-rays, there was no sign of bone damage so immediately I knew it was bound to be ligament damage. I couldn't put any weight on my injured leg for about 3 days so I rested my knee for around a fortnight and my knee felt good again after some rest. I didn't feel any instability in my knee so my physio wasn't so sure that I had torn my ACL it also felt strong so he thought that maybe it was just a sprain and said I could go back to playing soccer once I felt strong enough. About 6 weeks later after some physio my knee felt good again so I went to soccer training and I attempted to sprint and once again I ended up on the ground in agony and I heard another crunch so this time the hospital referred me to a knee specialist who did some test and confirmed that there was no end point in my knee so he was 99% positive I had completely ruptured my ACL. Once the results came back he confirmed that I had indeed torn my ACL and also had a slight tear in my meniscus but to my disgust the specialist said that because I was a 29 year old woman I should be hanging up my boots and he had suggested that I take up swimming or cycling and that he would not be referring me for surgery. Needless to say I got a second opinion. The second specialist said that I as long as I want to play soccer then he will give me reconstructive surgery, so all I had to do was wait for my appointment and do some pre surgery physio to get the rest of my leg in shape. I got my reconstruction surgery 16 weeks ago (hamstring graft) and I was off of my crutches within 3 days and I had full ROM within 3 - 4 weeks. The surgery wasn't half as painful as the initial injury but my physio did say that I am not the norm, he said that because I waited 3-4 months before getting my surgery the swelling would have all but gone and that's why I had less pain and reduced swelling post surgery. It has been about 16 weeks now and I am aiming to get back to soccer in April so I have 3 full months left to try and get my leg back to full strength. I have some clicking in the knee but it doesn't cause me any pain. My hamstring is a bit weak and needs to be built up as does my quad which is only at 80% of it's original strength. I don't have any knee pain unlike my friend who had her graft taken from the patellar tendon over a year ago and she still has numbness and pain across the front of her knee. I feel my main battle will be a psychological one, I can't get the sound and the pain of the initial injury out of my head and I feel rather sick when I think about it but I am hopeful that this will go away in time.