My ACL injury

With any sport comes injury, it just depends on how extreme the injury is. Being injured is hard. The second I found out I needed to have surgery I began to prepare myself mentally. Since I had gone through this surgery in high school, I knew what it would take for me to get back on track. After meeting with my athletic trainers and coaches, I decided what doctor I wanted to perform my surgery with. The doctor I decided to choose was located in Houston Texas. His name was Dr. Mark Adickes. He was a former NFL player and elite level surgeon. He has perfromed surgery for Olympic-level athletes and NFL players. After meeting with him, we established a game plan for my ACL (anterior curciate ligament) reconstruction. I chose this doctor because he was able to perfrom the surgery as soon as possible, and with the recovery of an ACL being 9-12 months I wanted to get this done ASAP. 

After my first surgery 

My reconstruction required a two step process, which is not the normal circumstance for ACL surgery, but it was necessary for me due to my past injury. Having two surgeries ment a longer recovery, but it was going to allow me to hopefully compete injury free. The first surgery I had was in January. During this surgery, Dr. Adickes took out my old ACL graft and repaired both of my menisucs. Due to the repair of the menisucs, I was non-weight baring for 6 weeks after surgery. I had to let the bone heal properly before the next surgery, which was about four months. May marked 4 months since the first surgery, so that is when I had teh second one. This surgery consisted of inputing a new ACL graft. For this graft the surgeon used my patella tendon. 

After my second surgery

I began rehabing my knee after the first surgery, but only after I ended the non-weight bearing period. Imediately after the second surgery, I began rehabing. I was in the rehab process for about 8 months total. It was a rough time. I saw my leg go from being muscular to small and fragile. Rebulding the muscle was the hardest part and to this day I am still trying to get my strength to 100%. 

Although this injury process was hard, it taught me a lot. There were many times that I wanted to give up and just quit track. I would get frustrated that I wasn't with my teammates at practice and meets. I continued to push because I knew that this time period in my life would fly by and sooner than later I would be out on that track again. Now going into my senior year, I'm back where I belong.