Overall, throughout my blog posts I found that the tearing of the ACL not only is painful, but the process of repairing it and living a normal life afterwards are both quite difficult. The surgical process is not only expensive, costing a couple thousand, but the chances of the ACL being fully repaired are quite slim. According to my own physician Dr. Dan Campbell, "The chances of a fully recovered ACL are less than 40%." So yes it may be repaired, but it won't be repaired to the way it was before. More importantly, for a doctor to have the obligation to repair such an injury requires many years of schooling past an undergraduate degree, about 5 to 6 years until one is ready to perform such a surgery. The ACL is such a small but crucial part of the leg that once is torn, many other functions of the leg are jeopardized as well. That is why athletes such as Derrick Rose are having a difficult time coming back from an ACL injury and performing like he used to. Financially, it's America better to tear one's ACL then it will be in the future because statistically surgery payments, mainly in are increasing rapidly each year due to the economy.
All in all, tearing of one's ACL may be one of the worst injuries out there no just because of the pain itself, but the terrible long-lasting affects athletically, and short-lasting affect financially. If I were to ever tear my ACL, I'll have to maybe reconsider how to plan out my life athletically afterwards because I know that once I tear my ACL, there is a likelyhood of never going back to the same person I was physically.
I never knew its that unlikely that an ACL will not fully recover after an injury. We expect our bodies to repair themselves if they are given the proper care but it's not the same story with the ACL. You said you wouldn't be the same person physically if you injured your ACL, but can't rehab and exercise get you close to what you were before? Also, do you think the injury would affect your mentality and emotional aspect?
ReplyDeleteIt's just crazy how much damage these injuries can do. I mean medical technology has come a long way, but there is still a large chance that it won't be repaired. But with the recent years in sports many more athletes have been tearing their ACLs and even other ligaments in their knees. There are more than a handful of people in the NFL alone that have torn their ACL from non-contact as well. Do you think that there is anything that can be done to strengthen the ligament or try and prevent these injuries from occurring?
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