Mel's ACL Surgery

I'm an 18 y.o. female that loves practicing Wushu, or Chinese martial arts. It's not really for combat/sparring, but rather for performing (don't call it dance!), but anyway, it's a pretty cool sport (check it out on youtube ;] )

anyway, I tore my ACL two years ago doing a jump in the air... I was twisting mid-air, somehow torqued too hard and tore my right ACL. :( I had a really really hard time because I knew absolutely nothing about ACLs (my knees had been perfect up until that acute injury!)

The injury hurt a lot and there was a huge pop. In any case, I had surgery with the allograft, but thanks to meniscus surgery, I had to sit out for a month, so my quad atrophied a lot.

I was able to get back to basic wushu (no jumps) in maybe 6 months, and then I was able to get back to full wushu in 8-9 months. Best feeling ever!!!!! It was so gratifying and I felt that I improved a lot in a short period of time.

Unfortunately, I tore my left ACL just two months ago :( also thanks to jumps... this one didn't hurt as much, but yeah, it was kind of depressing and i have surgery again next month. So my word of advice--

if your personality type is kind like mine (wants to be successful and is willing to push yourself to the limit), take a step back. Know your limits. train smart. Push but don't become reckless.

Whenever I injured myself, I was completely warmed up and conditioned, but psychologically I would become overexcited and want to exert more force than normal... so basically, I would be impatient and try to learn things without getting proper technique. so yeah... build a solid foundation. sometimes, fast is slow.

anyway, this time around, i hope to learn from my mistakes. i'm going to take my recovery slower, be a lot more diligent about leg conditioning, work on regaining neuromuscular control, maybe work with a therapist, etc.etc. and then i'll just hafta go from there... hopefully I can go back to my sport one day without future problems, but for now, I'm just going to have to take things day by day.