Dealing with ACL Surgery

Learn how this former member of the US Bobsled team dealt with his ACL injury.

I consider myself lucky for the fact during that in my life time I have been involved in many different aspects of sports and athletic activities. There were years of basketball, soccer, skiing, snowboarding, triathlons, and finally, most recently, bobsled. I was lucky enough to compete and remain healthy, unlike many other male and female athletes. It was this year, 2010, that my luck seemed to run out. While training as the alternate for the Olympic Games for the US Bobsled team, I suffered my major knee injury. During a night of sprint training, my knee suddenly gave out while I was decelerating from top speed. I was not sure what happened, or why it happened, but I knew something was wrong. I didn’t feel a pop like most people say they experience with knee injuries, but rather it just gave out. I was able to get up and walk out of the gym but I knew something wasn’t right. I would later come to find that I had torn not only my ACL, but both my lateral and medial menisci.

Everyone that faces an injury will deal with it differently. For me, I know that there is a separation between athletics and life. While my entire life has been consumed by athletics, I know that there is life outside of the sports. I have a supportive family and great friends. I have my health, even with the knee injury. I also now have a reason to train even harder this summer with thoughts of the 2014 Olympic Games.

Rehabbing my knee injury has been a challenge, its hard work and frustrating not being able to do the things that seemed so simple months ago. I now have a greater understanding of the pain any athlete goes through with an injury like the one I experienced. Each day I put my best foot forward… literally and continue to try and help others achieve the success that they are capable of both on and off the field.

I have been in rehab now going on 9 weeks and it’s been an adventure to say the least. When I first started in rehab 4 days after surgery I had zero range of motion in my leg, now just 9 weeks later I am up to 120 degrees and am able to sit in to a parallel squat position. Its funny getting out of the shower each day and seeing a leg that is significantly smaller than the other, almost half the size actually. Putting on the same clothes that I wore last summer and having them almost fall off of me due to my weight loss is a little difficult at times, but I know that it will soon return.

I found myself getting very frustrated a few weeks ago when I talked to others that had knee surgery in the past. While I knew that my injury was worse than the others, I found that I was getting frustrated that I was not healing quicker. After talking with both my Doctor and my Physical Therapist they allowed me to unlock my brace to 40 degrees several weeks ahead of schedule and to also take the brace off as I slept at night and lounged around the house. The changes were almost immediate and very dramatic. Soon I was able to bend my leg much farther than before and also could see the difference that it was making in the muscle build of my leg. Within almost a week I could slowly start to see some definition coming back in to my leg.

The more time I spend on taking care of my body, the better I feel and the better my body reacts to everything that it’s going through. I’ve learned to watch each and every calorie that I put in my body and I have stopped drinking alcohol and putting the bad calories in on a regular basis. Since I’ve started doing this I feel better than I had in the last 9 weeks. I have three weeks left in the brace and look forward to taking it off soon. 

Mentally, I’m not gonna lie; this has been a huge challenge for me. It’s the spring time and everyone is outside and working out and enjoying the spring time. However, while all my friends go running I am stuck inside having to listen about how nice it is to run and go outside. However things are improving slowly.

While life for me now moves a little slower than it did on the bobsled track at 85 miles per hour, I’m confident that I’ll return soon enough. People continue to say how bad they feel that this ACL injury has happened to me. I don’t feel bad about tearing the ligament and neither should they. I was given the opportunities to do things that most people never have and I will forever be grateful for them. If everything goes according to plan I will be right back to where I left off within the year.