Ok so here's the story of how I hurt my knee. It happened during an ultimate frisbee game. A lot of people are surprised by this because they think ultimate is pretty chill (it can be, when you're playing pickup!), but high force contact actually occurs pretty often in games. ACL's are probably just as common in ultimate as soccer, so it's not all that surprising that it happened to me while playing frisbee!
This is me (in blue) a few years ago taking a small tumble after catching the disc (I was fine). This happens all the time!
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During the last weekend of February we traveled to Virginia for a tournament. The collision occurred towards the end of the first half of the first game.
I was defending a cutter, when a bladey disc went up. Since she was significantly taller than me, I knew my only chance at getting a hand on the disc was to get my body sideways and in front of her and jump before she did. When you jump, there's a point right before you start accelerating upwards where your legs are supporting much more than your body weight, and that force is doubled if you're jumping off one leg. When I was at exactly that point in my jump to get the disc, some part of my opponent's body directly hit the outside of my knee as she tried to run through me, causing it to collapse sideways. I instantly felt the infamous pop that everyone associates with an ACL tear, along with the sickening sensation of my knee bending in an unmistakably unnatural direction. I landed a few feet away and facing a completely different direction. Replaying it in my mind still makes me nauseous.
It was the pop that terrified me, and before I hit the ground I knew it was a bad sign. In shock and panic, I started to hyperventilate. Was that what I think it was? It took about 20 seconds to calm down, gather my wits, and slow my breathing enough to assess the knee. No, it can't be. It hurt when I was hit, but the pain isn't too bad any more so maybe it's fine. Nothing was clearly broken and I could move it, which was a good sign. I stood up and could put weight on it, great sign. I was able to walk off the field on my own...awesome sign! The thinking side of my brain kicked in and I started trying to convince myself that I was fine.
Since there was a large amount of contact involved (and I knew most ACL’s happen in non-contact situations), I hoped the noise and pain was just from her leg slamming into mine. Maybe it would just turn into a bad bruise. Like when you stub your toe or get a paper cut and it feels like the worst pain the world but you know you’re going to be fine in 20 seconds. I thought, Surely if I can get up and walk then it must not be that bad, right? I decided I would walk it off that day and try to play on Sunday.
I now know that I was wrong. Turns out it's possible to walk with a very damaged knee, and a couple weeks later I found out that the ACL and both menisci had been torn.
I was defending a cutter, when a bladey disc went up. Since she was significantly taller than me, I knew my only chance at getting a hand on the disc was to get my body sideways and in front of her and jump before she did. When you jump, there's a point right before you start accelerating upwards where your legs are supporting much more than your body weight, and that force is doubled if you're jumping off one leg. When I was at exactly that point in my jump to get the disc, some part of my opponent's body directly hit the outside of my knee as she tried to run through me, causing it to collapse sideways. I instantly felt the infamous pop that everyone associates with an ACL tear, along with the sickening sensation of my knee bending in an unmistakably unnatural direction. I landed a few feet away and facing a completely different direction. Replaying it in my mind still makes me nauseous.
It was the pop that terrified me, and before I hit the ground I knew it was a bad sign. In shock and panic, I started to hyperventilate. Was that what I think it was? It took about 20 seconds to calm down, gather my wits, and slow my breathing enough to assess the knee. No, it can't be. It hurt when I was hit, but the pain isn't too bad any more so maybe it's fine. Nothing was clearly broken and I could move it, which was a good sign. I stood up and could put weight on it, great sign. I was able to walk off the field on my own...awesome sign! The thinking side of my brain kicked in and I started trying to convince myself that I was fine.
Since there was a large amount of contact involved (and I knew most ACL’s happen in non-contact situations), I hoped the noise and pain was just from her leg slamming into mine. Maybe it would just turn into a bad bruise. Like when you stub your toe or get a paper cut and it feels like the worst pain the world but you know you’re going to be fine in 20 seconds. I thought, Surely if I can get up and walk then it must not be that bad, right? I decided I would walk it off that day and try to play on Sunday.
I now know that I was wrong. Turns out it's possible to walk with a very damaged knee, and a couple weeks later I found out that the ACL and both menisci had been torn.
Here is a timeline of events and progress from injury to surgery.
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