My nightmare came true: I got an ACL tear. It’s more common than you’d think. - East Idaho News
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My nightmare came true: I got an ACL tear. It’s more common than you’d think.

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IDAHO FALLS — One of my worst nightmares came true: I tore my ACL.

Growing up, friends and family told me, “You never want to tear your ACL” and “Your knee will never be the same if you tear it.”

When I was involved in youth sports such as soccer, swimming, and skiing, I was sometimes a little worried but as I continued with my life and grew older, I quickly forgot about the possibility of tearing my ACL.

I thought, “Oh, this will never happen to me.”

But it did.

The day of the injury

On Jan. 21, my husband, Tyler, and I decided to go skiing and snowboarding at Grand Targhee Resort.

It was the second run of the day and I wanted to go faster, so I passed Tyler.

I decided to stop and wait for him but when I did, I skidded, caught an edge and immediately flew out of my skis. My body was dragged down the mountain, and I could only think, “My knee hurts SO bad.”

My right knee was twisted inward toward my left leg, which was straight. I tried to move my right knee while sliding but could not grab it fast enough.

Finally, I dug my boots into the snow and stopped. My husband rushed over on his snowboard and asked if I was okay. I tried to get up and we got me back into my skis but I noticed my right knee would not stop wobbling.

I took one turn to see if I could continue skiing. I couldn’t.

Ski patrol at Grand Targhee came to the rescue. They strapped me inside a toboggan and took me down the mountain.

ski patrol rescue
Grand Targhee ski patrol to the rescue!
ski patrol to the rescue
Tyler and I, along with ski patrol at Grand Targhee.

I made it back to Idaho Falls, went to urgent care and was told I needed to go to an orthopedic doctor.

My knee blew up that night and turned purple and blue. It hurt.

I ended up getting an MRI and found out I needed surgery for my anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

So much was racing through my mind. What’s the recovery process? Would I ever ski again?

ACL tears are becoming more common

I talked to everyone I knew about my torn ACL and learned from many people that they had experienced a similar injury.

Dr. Cedric Ortiguera, a Mayo Clinic orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist, said in an article that 150,000 to 200,000 ACL injuries occur each year in the United States.

I visited Dr. John Andary at the Shoulder & Knee Center in Idaho Falls. Andary has been an orthopedic surgeon for over 20 years and says ACL tears are becoming more common.

the MRI
My ACL tear was shown in an MRI. The red arrow points to the ACL tear.

“Its prevalence is increasing as the years go on, and I think that probably has a lot to do with more involvement in youth sports,” he said. “Once you start getting a little older into your double digits, it kind of starts becoming more prevalent, and once you become an adolescent, then it really goes up because you are having so much more athletic activity.”

An ACL tear, however, can happen at any age.

Women versus men

Do women have a higher chance of ACL tears compared to men?

“When you talk about the difference between men and women — it’s very common in both. But women have a little bit increased risk of ACL tears,” Andary said.

He explained women have a little more elasticity in their ligaments, meaning they are probably a bit more hypermobile and have an increased risk in tearing the ACL.

According to the Mayo Clinic, there are a number of factors that increase your risk of an ACL injury including participating in sports like soccer, football, basketball, gymnastics and downhill skiing, poor conditioning, using faulty movement patterns such as moving the knees inward during a squat, wearing footwear that doesn’t fit properly, and using poorly maintained sports equipment.

Andary said orthopedic surgeons will typically recommend getting ACL surgery done within three months of the injury.

The day of the surgery

On March 2, I went in for surgery at Mountain View Hospital. Andary performed the operation with Todd Curtis, his PA, and many others providing assistance.

According to instructions I got from Andary in a packet, “ACL surgery is done arthroscopically through several small poke holes in the skin and a small incision to pass the graft.”

“We cannot simply sew the torn ACL back together. We must reconstruct the ligament with new collagen. This new collagen can be taken from another part of your own knee (autograft) or we can use tissue that was donated by another person (allograft).”

I had a hamstring autograft to fix my ACL.

Tyler and Andrea before surgery
Tyler and I at Mountain View Hospital. This was right before my ACL surgery.

Post operation

After my surgery, I was given a continuous passive motion machine (CPM). A physical therapist told me I needed to use it so I could keep my leg moving and I had to use crutches.

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The CPM.

“After the ACL reconstruction, you can be up and doing weight bearing as tolerated if you didn’t have a meniscus tear and be off crutches in a week or two,” Andary said. “You can be active and functional doing your normal and daily activities after a month or so, but you can’t be doing anything with power or strength like returning to sports.”

It can take several months to get back to sports, he says.

Physical therapy for the ACL

I started physical therapy a little over a week after my surgery with Keegan Parmer in Ammon. He owns Vista Physical Therapy which is attached to Anytime Fitness. Parmer has been a physical therapist for six years and does one-on-one therapy.

Parmer says right after an ACL surgery, there’s not much movement. The muscles start to lose strength.

“Initially, you have to get a range of motion back. A lot of people come in and they are very stiff. That knee doesn’t want to bend. Sometimes, it doesn’t even want to go straight,” he said.

leg lifts with weights
Me at Vista Physical Therapy doing leg lifts with some weight.

At the beginning of physical therapy, Parmer massages the knee and focuses on stretches and exercises to build strength.

“As we progress from there when we get the green light to start putting more weight on your leg…then that’s when we start focusing on more of the strength, balance even…agility where you start putting different pressures on the knee and getting used to it,” he said.

He says seeing people for 12 weeks in physical therapy at least three times or twice a week is very common for ACLs.

physical therapy
Me doing a wall sit and trying to strengthen my right knee.

It can be mentally challenging but Parmer says it gets better.

“It’s awful for everybody with an ACL injury. I don’t think people realize the mental toll that it takes on a person to not be able to use your leg after a major surgery. It’s a slow process,” he said. “I think it’s important for people to remember: it’s going to get better. It’s time and patience.”

I asked Parmer if he thought I will ever ski again. Thankfully, there’s hope.

“Oh yeah! For sure. Probably not in the Olympics or anything. Give it time. Usually, it’s about a year until you get back to an activity like that,” he told me.

ACL tear prevention

Dr. Andary says there are ways to prevent an ACL tear and programs that can help athletes. Even working with an athletic trainer or physical therapist on a six to eight-week program can help teach how to strengthen quads and hamstrings.

I asked Parmer, too, if you are more in shape than someone who isn’t, would you have a better chance of not tearing your ACL.

“I think the general answer is yes. The stronger your muscles are, the more stability they help give to your knee,” he said. “It’s obviously going to help, but that doesn’t mean that there’s not that risk no matter what you do.”

There you have it. I am in my 30s. I had a freak ski accident and tore my ACL.

My knee is getting better and I look forward to a full recovery. It’s not easy and it has been painful. I plan to be on the slopes again next winter but this time, I’ll go slower.

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