My first sports injury
Sidekicksol
Kansas City, Kansas
So I was doing my regular(yearly) checkup on Icrontic and alot has changed.. but I saw in this section of the forums that my shin splints thread is still alive and kicking.
I never did solve the problem, and I still have them. They don't hurt much anymore, but they are there.
Now, to the thread.
In late May I was playing on my off-season soccer team, we were about halfway through the season. I'd played a good game and hadn't gone out yet, into about the 75th minute.. I was pulled back from forward to stopper, which is a pretty drastic change for you non soccer players.
I had the ball, and was carrying up the field and broke away from my mark, into the left-center. I was about to put a forward-right cross into the top part of the box, when the man who was supporting my mark slide tackled me, straight on, point blank.
Im not sure what happened, but I was off the field in an ambulance and in a hospital before 20 minutes had elapsed. They told me I had sprained my MCL and ACL, or something like that, and said I'd be back in a matter of weeks.
Well, that turned out to be a little off.
3 weeks later, school is out, and I've been hobbling around for some time, when I get my MRI results back, that I had about 10 days earlier.
Basically, I had partially torn my MCL which was a relapse of a previous injury I wasn't even aware of, and I also apparently didn't even have an ACL anymore for all intents and purposes.
So, today is, on the dot, my 3rd week past surgery. Im now partially walking and enduring the torture of therapy.
As for playing soccer again? Not for 8 months, and thats presuming I ever want to again. Call me what you like, but Im afraid of holding a soccerball right now, I dont want to think about kicking one.
TLDR I tear my ACL, I've never had a big injury before, it sucks.
Anyone else have similar injuries or experiences?
SKS(Now SKR, on TF2)
I never did solve the problem, and I still have them. They don't hurt much anymore, but they are there.
Now, to the thread.
In late May I was playing on my off-season soccer team, we were about halfway through the season. I'd played a good game and hadn't gone out yet, into about the 75th minute.. I was pulled back from forward to stopper, which is a pretty drastic change for you non soccer players.
I had the ball, and was carrying up the field and broke away from my mark, into the left-center. I was about to put a forward-right cross into the top part of the box, when the man who was supporting my mark slide tackled me, straight on, point blank.
Im not sure what happened, but I was off the field in an ambulance and in a hospital before 20 minutes had elapsed. They told me I had sprained my MCL and ACL, or something like that, and said I'd be back in a matter of weeks.
Well, that turned out to be a little off.
3 weeks later, school is out, and I've been hobbling around for some time, when I get my MRI results back, that I had about 10 days earlier.
Basically, I had partially torn my MCL which was a relapse of a previous injury I wasn't even aware of, and I also apparently didn't even have an ACL anymore for all intents and purposes.
So, today is, on the dot, my 3rd week past surgery. Im now partially walking and enduring the torture of therapy.
As for playing soccer again? Not for 8 months, and thats presuming I ever want to again. Call me what you like, but Im afraid of holding a soccerball right now, I dont want to think about kicking one.
TLDR I tear my ACL, I've never had a big injury before, it sucks.
Anyone else have similar injuries or experiences?
SKS(Now SKR, on TF2)
0
Comments
They can be pretty nasty and it is quite a common footballing injury. When you younger your body can recover more quickly but make sure you do the stretching and excercises that the doctors tell you to do otherwise you will feel it later in life.
I did my left knee in when I was about 19. I was playing full back and I pushed up and overlapped our winger on the left. I had a cross field ball hit out to me by our centre mid which I jumped to bring down with my right foot. I landed on my left leg with it dead straight and locked out. I heard a loud crack and instead of my quad coming down the inside of my knee it was coming down the outside.
I think I had dislocated my knee but I never did find out. I go picked up by my team mates and drived to A&E by the time I got to the car my knee alignment seemed to have sorted itself out but I still couldn't put any weight on it. Went to hospital and they said rest it and put a tubi grip on my ancle! After I pointed out that I had hurt my knee the nurse confirmed that it was my knee from my notes and fitted it propperly. I never got give crutches or any excercises and seven years on I still get problems if I try to turn too quickly!
I also have a small problem with my rotator cuffs from playing badminton at a pretty high level with a poor hitting technique. Kind of like tennis elbow but in my shoulder. thats not so bad these days as I have corrected my technique and I got given some exercises to sort my muscle out.
20 years ago those injuries usually made star athlete's average after "recovery". The best surgeons that money (Sport's Teams) could buy with the best equipment and the best recovery techniques of the day made the chance at a come back slim but possible. 20 years before that (1970's and before) those injuries were almost 100% career ending. In the 80's and early 90's they had advanced to a point that stars could come back at, say, 80%. Normal pro athletes were reduced to backups due to losing a step.
Today... Star athletes can almost always come back near 100% (sometimes better if the effected part was damaged for years and finally gave way). Normal Pro athletes can come back the next year at 80% and then near 100% the second year.
OK, so why did I say "They are still, relativity, hobby ending injuries today." Well, most of us do not have access to top surgeons and the money/ time to dedicate to recovery like a pro athlete can. How many of us can have physical therapy equipment in the house and a therapist come over every day to push you. Most of us "Hobby" players go to a HMO doctor that refers us to a "specialist" that squeezes you in long enough to get some x-rays and maybe a MRI then set an appointment to go over the results. Then at the appointment you get the bad news and either get told that therapy "might" help or you are told that surgery is necessary. A few weeks later you go in, you are discharged that day or the next and told to follow up with your doctor. You do, and are told to attend PT 3 or 4 times a week. The PT works you over for an hour or two and then tells you to go home and continue. This all leads to months of recovery until the referral ends and you are able to limp along at 70%. Some will only reach 80% and suffer with a bum leg or arm for the rest of your life. And talk about trust... most will never fully trust the injured limb.
So... the lesson. Do the Therapy as hard and as often as directed and let the terapist and your doctor know if anything feels off. Do not let them "release" you to normal activities until you feel 100%. Even then, you need to keep up with the therapy techiques until you feel no pain.
OK, I'm done.
Your ACL does not heal on it's own. Your MCL will.
I had a hamstring graph. They basically made me a new ACL out of a shaving from where my hamstring crosses over my shin, under the knee. Theres are 3 types of graphs, hamstring, patellar, and cadaver.
An X-RAY cant tell you anything about what happened to the knee. Only an MRI can.
They now also do the procedure orthoscopically. I have pics, hehe.
Maybe not today, as they can be fixed, but alot of it is psychological. Im not sure I want to play soccer ever again.
For example, I hurt my back and they did an x-ray... What? That may show if my spine was fractured but not a good indicator of back sprain. 6 years later my back is hurting again and I will be asking for more than just physical therapy without having more things done to figure out exactly what is wrong.
As for ACL... My co-worker's son tore his ACL while playing college football (American football). He went to the Chicago Bears chief sports medicine surgeon and he did the cadaver transplant thing. He swares his knee is tighter and better than he can remember. Odds are he slightly tore/ sprained it years ago and never knew it. BTW, he was drafted #16 by the San Diego Chargers.