After a summer of working on my game and getting ready for the season, I felt confident going into my first year of college basketball. My first day about 20 or so minutes in I go to make a hard move into a teammates body and I hear a pop, and a feeling of pain I have never felt before. I knew something was wrong and the next day I went to the doctors and he immediately told me I had torn my ACL and it will require surgery. The news was a big hit to me and I couldn't help but break down. Tearing your ACL is a taboo injury. People tend to think it is a career ender but I'm here to tell you it's not.
My surgeon, my trainer at school, and the doctor who diagnosed my torn ACL told me it would be about a year until I'd be back on the court again and it crushed me. The day of surgery I was excited because I couldn’t wait to start rehab and start proving people wrong. For 2 weeks I was in my bed, leg straight out, and in a lot of pain and that gave me way too much time to think. Thoughts like “Why me,” and “I'll never be the same” rushed in my head.
After 2 weeks I started physical therapy working hard doing everything they gave me to do and controlling what I could control, and that was working as hard as I could to get my knee healed. I had my good days and my bad but I progressively started to get better. Once 2 and a half months passed, I started running. My wind wasn’t there and I didn’t feel the same but nonetheless, I kept working and working.
Fast forward to about 6 months my knee was healed, I was surprising my physical therapist and my surgeon on how well and fast I was recovering. I went to see my surgeon and she smiled and said, “Well, you have been cleared to go back to full basketball activity”. I proved so many people wrong and the way I got there was by controlling what I could control, and doing the things I could do to the best of my ability.
I know now that come this season, I will be back in full strength and that my skill will be there. My advice to anyone who tears their ACL is to NEVER give up and to NEVER think that you will never be the same. The truth is yes it’s a hard road to recovery but you can come back stronger than you were before. so keep pushing and never give up!
